


NAKAERON REIGNITED

by ML SKPS (bouncing_tomato)



Series: NAKAERON [1]
Category: Cyberpunk Genre, Original Work, Sci-Fi - Fandom
Genre: Aliens, Biotechnology, Cybernetics, Cyberpunk (not the game), Dystopian, F/F, F/M, Futuristic, Gen, Multi, Other, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, galaxy, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 59,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28117845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouncing_tomato/pseuds/ML%20SKPS
Summary: He thought he was just living his normal life after a tech war, but he was wrong.Lied to.Manipulated and kept hidden on Earth.From who, though?Note: the characters are inspired from Naruto and Sasuke.
Series: NAKAERON [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2081178
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Something Familiar

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! If you like this story, consider supporting me and give a kudos at the end of the chapter!  
> Also, I am working every day to make this story better, so if you notice any mistake or something missing or unclear, please say it in the comments or contact me on my Facebook page ML SKPS.  
> Thanks a lot for being here :)

** **

* * *

**Monday, August 23, 2081, 08.00 a.m. **

I have never been a fan of mornings, like, how do they make other people feel happy and refreshed? I didn’t understand then, I don’t understand now either. I never felt refreshed in the morning, I felt drained instead.

The silence in this place kills me and the only thing I can do now is replay my memories.

I should start with that day when it all began... _again._

The alarm woke me up in a state I’d never thought I’d ascend to - pure despondency.

Mortification.

I almost fell out of bed trying to actually get out of it like a normal person.

Also, walked through the house like a zombie until I managed to get in the kitchen.

To my surprise, the fridge was open...

“What are you doing?!” I yelled at my cat. “That bacon is mine, asshole! Get back here!”

"Meow!"

I sighed and gave up on chasing him again.

Everyone already knows I hate mornings, but should I go on with saying that I also never had enough time to eat? Let’s not even talk about other things people do in the morning: take a shower, choose their outfits, walk their dogs, go for a run - for goodness’ sake, how the hell would anyone expect me to run, I don't know- and some of them even have sex, or go shopping!

Can you imagine? Damn.

For me, it was simple - I had to go to work.

I hated my job and I was thinking that I needed to change it into something challenging, something that would motivate me to get my ass out of bed earlier, in order to have time to eat and feed my cat... so he would no longer open the fridge _by himself_ to steal _my_ food.

Trying to remember myself as a teenager, full of spirit and motivation, was pretty hard for me at that time, somehow my memories were foggy, I only knew that I ran away from home but still managed to finish high-school and University.

Now I understand why my memories were so foggy, but I didn't understand it then.

I thought everything was fine, that I was just a normal, lucky but dumb dude that was just supposed to live his life like... normal people, but how normal people usually lived like... was the opposite of how my life was.

Quickly grabbed some clothes and took them on, washed my face, put my shoes on then rushed to the door.

My cat started hissing at me from behind.

“Wow, calm down. What’s your damn problem? You already ate all my bacon and I’m not gonna feed you until I come back, mark my words!” I sassed.

He started growling. What an ungrateful, furry jerk, right?

I just got out and shut the door behind me. I didn’t even know if cats hated me or if I just had communication issues with my poor Marble. A white, male, persian cat with green eyes. He was a present from my pervy uncle when I turned sixteen. Marble was just a kitten back then and he looked like a tiny white blob with a pair of eyes and a pink nose. As he got older, his grumpy face started looking like my uncle's. Weird, right?

I didn't have a clear image of my uncle though, I only saw him once and that's when he gave me the cat. He told me he found him on the street and remembered it was my birthday so he thought it would be a cute present. I could only remember he was a pervert- from what my parents said about him- and had long, spiky white hair. I hadn't seen him since then, because he said he was busy with travelling.

That was about to change, though.

When I finally got to work, of course my boss, Steve, was the first person to greet me in his own way:

“Michael! So glad to see you arrive late again! I truly missed it,” he sassed with his annoying tone.

“Spare me, would you?” I scoffed. “Let me take care of my job now, while I’m at it.”

I can’t describe how much Steve could annoy me. He had to be that overwhelmingly annoying asshole that made people feel like shit in general, as if he was perfect or something.

Give me a break.

I took my seat at the office and started preparing all the paperwork I needed to review that day.

Right, I haven’t mentioned what I did for a living.

I was a boooring statistics analyst at Agra Inc., a huge multinational real estate business, with an average salary, because my job was pretty easy-a perfect job for brain-dead guys like me. 

I'm wondering now... why did I stay to work there.

The truth is once you get used to something, you get stuck in that loop and you do things automatically, without wasting any energy like you’d do if you worked somewhere else. Another truth is that I don't know why. It was my first job after I finished University.

I just stayed, two years passed and… maybe it was depression.

Or maybe I was cursed. 

I think I'm starting to know which one of those was the case.

You're right, _both_.

* * *

I checked the clock after I noticed I had been spacing out for a while. When I realised I had five more hours to go, I got up with a long sigh and decided to go on a little trip to the bar to get a cup of coffee. 

As I was heading there, I noticed someone in Steve’s office.

The most fascinating person I had ever seen.

He seemed a little bit taller than me, very fit, but not too muscular, wearing black pants and a blue shirt, and his hair was black at medium length like a weird long pixie cut, styled in a way I'd never seen before.

What amazed me was his pale skin and the perfect way his face was shaped.

I mean, who looks like _that_ and is a _guy?_

A strange feeling took over me when I saw him and I decided to remain there, trying to figure out what they were talking about.

One of the pros a business building full of offices has: everything is made of glass. Cons: you can't even scratch your butt without _at least_ one person seeing it. 

The charming stranger suddenly got up from his seat, shook Steve’s hand and headed straight to the door. I gasped and moved away, but they both saw me, so I gave up and stopped.

“Ah, there you were!” Steve exclaimed with fake excitement as he got out of his office. “Would you be kind enough to prepare me and our guest here, two cups of coffee? No sugar, please. “

“I’m deeply sorry, Steve, but I’m afraid can’t do that for you," I said after I cleared my throat. "We only have one coffee capsule left in the bar, because someone - and that is you- forgot to buy more. I think the best option we have here would be to prepare that cup of coffee to our guest while you and me stick to instant coffee, what do you say?”

That moment felt epic for me, I had no idea where all that courage came from, but it was monumental.

The black haired guy came closer to me, analyzing me from head to toes. 

“So... this is the manager you told me about, right, Steve?” he inquired with a low tone as he raised one eyebrow at my boss.

Steve lost his will to speak.

It was as if some invisible fairy took away his vocal cords.

Just like that: _poof!_

I cleared my throat, prepared to say I was not the manager, just a simple analyst. “I’m just a-”

“Yeah!" Steve interrupted me, laughing nervously. "He’s just a little bit too cocky, even for a manager, am I right?” 

Well... that’s the awkward moment I realised I stopped breathing. With my eyes wide open, I could hear myself not breathing and hoped they didn’t.

I had no idea whether I should say something weird again or stay silent.

I remember what I chose, though...

“I’m cocky after work too,” I said with a confident smirk on my face. “Also, Steve, it’s impolite not to introduce a guest to me.”

Basically, I started enjoying my new role instantly.

Steve coughed anxiously. “I-… I’m so sorry, you are right! Michael, this is Samuel. Samuel, meet Michael, our… manager…”

" _Michael?_ " Samuel asked as he raised an eyebrow again, as if he expected to hear another name.

He nodded and smiled as we shook hands. His palm was very cold, and when mine touched his, I felt a weird shiver, as if... it was deja-vu.

I remained calm, though. I thought it was just my anxiety playing tricks on me because he looked so mysterious and yet familiar, or maybe I was too desperate about not wanting to look like an idiot.

None of those were actually the case, though.

His name did ring a bell... but I was never good at dealing with a storm full of feelings I can't understand, so I chose to ignore it.

I knew I was nervous already, and the guy looked at me with a weird satisfaction in his dark eyes as he sketched a subtle smile. I was just staring at him, as an awkward silence settled in and my boss decided to break it after a few seconds.

First time I felt grateful for hearing his annoying voice.

“Right! Let’s go outside and drink that coffee, what do you say?"

Samuel nodded in approval.

"Bryce, would you, please?” Steve asked a co-worker of mine that happened to head to the bathroom.

“Of course I’ll prepare coffee for all _three_ of you,” Bryce hummed ironically, giving me a hateful look.

I guess I finally gave him a real reason to despise me. The idiot deserved the treatment and I deserved my prize, of course.

We headed to the balcony and sat down at a round table with exactly three seats. Samuel was just admiring the view, in silence.

Something was odd about him, he was very calm. The serenity he was emanating was kind of unique, I hadn’t seen anyone like him before.

That's what I thought, at least.

Bryce finally came with three cups of coffee. As he placed them on the table he cleared his throat, looking at me again. I shot him a _"What is your problem?"_ look and he left without saying anything.

I sighed in relief.

“Samuel, should we discuss about what we’re going to do with that development project of yours?” Steve inquired, breaking the silence again.

The weird guy nodded as he blinked slowly. He seemed to do that instead of saying “yes”, from what I've noticed. I was so drawn to him that I couldn't stop staring at him. Yeah, that's how you look at someone who is unbelievably... perfect, I guess, but Samuel... there was something about him, something more than just his perfect appearance.

“Firstly," Samuel began, as he crossed his arms after he made himself more comfortable, "I want to inform you that I want your manager, um... Michael, right?" he asked as he looked at me.

"Yes," I approved.

"Sorry," he sighed. "I had a rough day."

"No problem," I chuckled. "You can call me Nathan if it's easier for you, it's my second name. Each of my parents gave me one. My father named me Michael and my-"

" _Nathan?_ " Samuel gasped in a low tone as his eyes widened for a second. 

The way his voice sounded like in my head when he said my name gave me goosebumps. Something was wrong about the whole moment and I couldn't tell what.

Steve was also looking at him in a weird way, somehow analyzing his face.

"Nathan, yes," I responded awkwardly, "or did I say something wrong, uhm-"

Samuel quickly cleared his throat in response, as he looked at me, then calmly took a sip from his cup of coffee. "No, don't worry. It's a nice name, I wanted to say. I just... remembered something from my past. Anyway, I'll call you Michael, though, if that's how everyone calls you around here."

"Okay," I murmured confused, as if I wanted to object that.

"So, what I wanted to say, Steve," Samuel went on, " is that I would like Michael to become my right hand in the project I discussed with you about. Something tells me he knows Agra Corporation more than you do. Not only he does seem to have the potential of running a project but I also believe he can lead an entire team.”

I gasped when I heard that and my brain froze instantly as I widened my eyes at Steve, who almost dropped his coffee cup on the floor.

Of course anyone’s ego would disco-dance hearing something like that, but mine…

Mine was completely freaking out. I mean, just _trying_ to imagine how on Earth I would lead a project with hell knew how many people involved?!

I was just a damn analyst!

“Excuse me, “ I interfered politely, trying to keep my voice low and still, “what project are we talking about? What will it focus on?”

“Developing public areas,” Samuel answered lightly. ”We want to attract… let’s say... smarter customers in shopping malls, parks and other types of public places. “

“Smarter customers? What’s wrong with the rest?” Steve asked, confused.

“I simply don’t like them,” Samuel enunciated. “Most of them are not educated people and they are like a disease to society.”

I choked, silently. Samuel heard me, though, as he smiled at me softly in response, as if that would calm me down.

It actually did, in a way.

“That sounds like neo fascism," my boss scoffed as he gave Samuel a disgusted look. "Are you also against capitalism?" 

“Don’t be hasty, Steve, let the man explain,” I scolded him like I was actually the manager. “Samuel, how would developing all these areas actually keep uneducated people away? I mean… they don’t usually care about others, they just come to shopping malls to waste their time and money, nothing would actually stop them from doing that, right?”

Samuel snorted as he crossed his arms. “Hn, I like you. That is exactly the attitude I need in this project. Waste their time and money, huh? That was actually funny.”

Steve barely made a sound. I bet he was ashamed of himself because he never knew anything else out of his economic range. All he knew was how to manage money.

He cleared his throat as he tried to defend his opinion: “Converting places to be one-type-of-people-friendly was never a success throughout history, Samuel. They are places, not certain products. It would all be a loss of profit. What you're saying is a complete-”

Not moved at all by what Steve said, Samuel rolled his eyes before interrupting him. “Look, by attracting only educated people with more money, one cannot lose profit. On the contrary, those people would enjoy their time there, especially if they are not bothered by resource- wasting peasants and their offspring.“ 

That was pretty rough, because my boss turned pale. 

“And guess what happens when people enjoy their time there, “ Samuel continued, looking at me this time. “They become happier and more generous. All sales would increase and more people would also follow their example.”

I nodded in approval. What he said made sense to me, but not to Steve just yet.

My boss sighed. “Okay, but you haven’t said anything about customers that come to these places just to waste their time and money, like Michael said. Believe me, if I were one of them, I would not give a damn if the whole country would be destined only for smart and wealthy people. I’d still be here. You can’t possibly kick people out or check if they’re educated or not, now, can you? That's dictatorship.”

Samuel had that look of _you don’t know shit about what I can do_ on his face. It amused me more than Steve's British accent. “What if I told you, for a start," he replied as he curtly crossed his legs like a lady," that we wouldn’t allow people to bring kids, younger than five, with them in the shopping areas? They’d have to leave their kids in children areas where specialized personnel would look after them while their parents are shopping somewhere else? Charged by the hour, of course. It is not dictatorship, an owner does whatever the hell he wants in his company.”

That was a good food for thought, especially for Steve, whose face brightened up instantly.

To be honest, I suddenly imagined him having dollar signs instead of eyes.

“Well, that sounds like a lot of profit! Now you're talking business,” my boss exclaimed joyfully.

“I agree because I hate spoiled brats, so why not raise the age limit to seven?" I suggested bluntly.

“Hn. I’ll take that into consideration, Michael, thank you,” Samuel responded, sketching a satisfied smile. “By the way, Steve, this coffee sucks.”

“Oh, I bet I know why,” I told Samuel as I leaned forward to the table and grabbed Steve’s cup of coffee, taking a sip from it.

“Oi!” Steve gasped as he stretched his arm towards me, trying to stop me from taking his cup and obviously failed.

I snorted as Samuel looked at me confused. “It’s because you’re drinking instant coffee, Samuel. Steve’s drinking the one you should’ve had. You thought he wouldn’t notice, huh?” I snickered at my boss.

Now I'm wondering why I suddenly turned into a jerk.

The reason might have been Samuel popping in there almost suggesting I was the one who should run the company instead of Steve?

Oh, right. Steve. His face was flushed and I could almost read his thoughts, betting they sounded like _“I’m going to fire you and then kill you, Michael!!”_.

Whatever his thoughts were though, he didn’t make a sound.

“Alright Steve, this is getting boring," Samuel sighed. "I’d like to invite Michael to a very important meeting I’ll be having at my company tomorrow morning."

Let’s pause. He said **in the morning**. **M-O-R-N-I-N-G,** that was all I could hear.

_Why on Earth couldn’t anyone have a meeting in the damn afternoon!?_

“Michael?” I heard Samuel calling me as I came back to reality.

“Yes!" I responded, smiling apologetically. "Sorry. A meeting, right! When will it be?”

“9 A.M. at the Alpha Inc. main building. We’ll discuss further about this project. If you want to join me, of course.”

How could I say no to that? He almost lost me at “9 A.M.”, though.

I nodded, giving Samuel a smile as he nodded back, blinking slowly again.

He cleared his throat in a very discreet way as he got up from his seat, ready to leave.

After he gave me a short once-over, he turned to my boss. “Please, would you bring me my umbrella? I think I might have forgotten it in your office.”

Steve didn’t move.

“I hope you don’t expect Michael to go, right? It’s your private office," Samuel went on.

“Right! Of course, I’ll be back in a minute.” Steve mumbled awkwardly. 

I wanted to laugh but I kept my mouth shut while my boss gave a last sigh before getting up, heading to his office to get Samuel’s umbrella.

I clearly remember what happened next.

As I got up from my seat, Samuel came closer to me. “Here is my number," he said bluntly, handing me a piece of paper ripped from a bigger piece of paper from his chest pocket.

I felt like I wanted to explode but I tried to calm down by analyzing the situation.

Maybe he gave me his number because I had to go to that meeting the next day and I needed it.

There could not be any other reason, right?

I just acted normal.

“Thank you, Samuel," I smiled politely as I stretched out my hand to grab the piece of paper. "I’m really glad I will get to work with you on a project this big! I will call you tomorrow morning for sure.”

Samuel’s eyes widened for a second, then returned back to normal as he sighed, looking away. “Actually, Steve already gave me your number, so I'll call you in the morning,” he said as he put the piece of paper back in his chest pocket and then turned around.

I felt like someone hit my head with a basket ball.

After he made a few steps forward, Samuel looked over his shoulder, straight into my eyes, as if he was giving me one last chance to say something.

His dark eyes were hypnotizing.

I turned to stone, my face was also red as hell, probably, and I didn’t know what to say.

The clock was ticking and Steve could have been back anytime, so I had to think fast.

 _W_ _hy is this guy acting this way, what does he want from me? Am I being manipulated by him or something?_

There was no time for all those questions, so I took the risk, because I always get what I want in the end. Hell, that day got me more than I could have ever asked for, anyway.

I made a step forward and gave him a smile, full of confidence. “Why don't you call me later, then? I like your ideas and I’m dying of curiosity to know more.“

Samuel smiled, satisfied. His face almost said _“Go on, I’m listening.”_

“So… we should go somewhere and talk before the official meeting tomorrow. What sorts of places are you into?” I asked, slowly getting nervous.

“Private,” Samuel murmured.

“Perfect, me too.” I replied. “I know a place where we can eat the best food and also drink some-”

“Yes, your place it is, then. Sounds perfect to me as well. Send me a text with your address,” he interrupted me.

I could not say no. All I wanted to suggest was my favorite restaurant, not my damn _house_ , though, but it was too late.

Why the hell would he want to come at my house?

I clenched my fists as I released a short sigh, trying to get over my anxiety. “Prepare to eat the finest food you’ve ever had then,” I sassed, acting completely normal.

“Hn. Don’t overdo it,” Samuel snickered.

He turned back around to face me again, took the piece of paper out of his pocket and pointed it at me as he was keeping it between his index and middle fingers. "Fine, you call me, then."

Steve came back in the next moment, looking kind of tired.

I gasped when I saw him and instantly took the piece of paper from Samuel, putting it in my pocket, hoping that my boss didn't see anything.

It felt like I just took drugs from someone at work. Cool, huh?

Yeah, _I was such a dork._

“I’m really sorry Samuel, but I searched everywhere, your umbrella could not be found,” my boss sighed.

“I must have left it somewhere else, then,” Samuel said with a sickening calm tone. “Thank you, Steve.”

That's when I figured it out. " _The sneaky bastard sent Steve to search for his imaginary umbrella that he didn’t actually bring, only to talk to me in private, without Steve being around,"_ I thought as I gave Samuel a smirk.

It was still pretty odd, though. What could someone like him want from... someone like me?

“I have an important meeting coming next and I must head out,” Samuel muttered, still trying to look calm, though I bet he wasn't. See you ton-... um, tomorrow, Michael.”

His pale face turned pink for a second. Mr. Perfect almost blew it!

I smiled back as I nodded in approval.

Steve and Samuel left while I remained there for a minute to clear my thoughts and sighed as I admired the view, joyfully.

When I went back to my office, I didn’t even get to sit down because Steve came back faster than I expected. 

“May I have a word with you, Michael?”

I scoffed.

_There it was._

_My cue._

My turn to get fired finally came, according to my thoughts. I could bet he would tell me that he was going to be the one attending the meeting instead of me, but little did he know that I actually won the bigger fight…

“Planet Earth to Michael…” he scolded me.

“Yes, sure, I am here. Go on, “ I said with a relaxed tone.

“Not here, in my office, please.”

"Fine, whatever" I pouted as I rolled my eyes.

That is the moment when I would not have cared at all if he would fire me.

When we both got into his office, he closed the door behind us. It could totally feel like a future crime scene if the whole building wasn’t made of transparent glass.

“I want to talk about Samuel,” he began.

“What about him?” I asked nervously as I took a seat, hoping that Steve didn’t know about what happened on the balcony.

“This project his company is starting… is worth a fortune. It will bring us a lot of money, Michael.“

“Obviously, and?”

“Don’t mock me,” Steve hissed as he pointed his index finger at me in a bossy way. “Tomorrow you will need to behave like a pure example of what this company is about and for everyone that works here!”

“Oh, so I’m actually the manager now?” I snorted. “Wow, how did this happen?”

Steve released a long sigh. “I started telling him that this company has a manager with a very high potential, then he interrupted me and I never got to explain who was I talking about. I was talking about myself, obviously!!”

Ouch, poor Steve.

Somehow, I wanted to comfort him regarding the sad situation his pride got into, but the little devil on my shoulder was whispering in my ear that I should let him burn in envy and jealousy.

“Anyway, I was about to tell you that despite the fact I hate doing this, I can’t back down, now that I said you’re the manager. Maybe you’ll do this company some good. Take these books and read them carefully, you will learn some things. I hope you won’t embarrass me tomorrow. Maybe I’ll start to like you more than I could have ever imagined if you do a great job.”

“That sounded so gay, Steve,” I snickered. 

He scoffed. “The first thing you should start with would be to stop joking around, Unsworth. Tomorrow you’ll meet a lot of important investors and you can’t make a fool of yourself and our company in front of them and Samuel, who is the CEO of Alpha Corporation by the way!! Oh my God… what did I get myself into…” he sighed as he pressed his palm against his forehead.

“Calm down, drama queen, I won’t turn anything into shit,” I said as I rolled my eyes again, like a teenager.

“I really hope not," he sighed. "Now go home and study! You’re free for today. Actually, I’ll hire someone else to do your old job. You won’t have time for that, from now on.”

“Wow, thanks Steve, you’re the best!” I exclaimed happily. 

“Yeah, as if I had another choice. Call me tomorrow after the meeting and tell me how it went. Don’t lie because I’ll find out.”

“Of course, boss! Have a nice daaay!”

“Yeah, you too,” Steve mumbled as I got out.

As I was passing through office desks, all my coworkers raised their heads above their computers, with eyes wide open, curious. 

“Michael, are you okay?” Bryce asked me. 

“Never been better, actually,” I replied bluntly.

“Oh. He fired you, didn’t he?”

Bastard. He could not wait for that.

“Actually, I’ve been promoted! Say hello to your new manager, my friends! Have a marvelous day, see ya!”

They all gasped and remained speechless behind me, while I got out and slightly slammed the door after me.

 _Victory,_ I thought.


	2. Trying To Handle Too Much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Are things becoming clearer for Michael or is the fog in his mind becoming thicker?

When I got home, the first thing that popped into my mind was that I had to feed Marble, obviously. He was already growling at me, so I decided to give him his favorite food: tuna.

The second he heard me open the tuna can, he “teleported” himself on the kitchen counter and started purring. 

“You narcissistic, psychopathic, shady asshole!” I pouted at him. “You only love me when I give you food! That's unfair!”

I sighed as Marble meowed at me, then took off my clothes as I headed straight to the bathroom, ready to freshen myself up with a shower.

But then, it hit me:

“Wait, I have to go shopping to buy all the ingredients I need to prepare dinner for Samuel. I’ll come back all sweaty again. After that, I have to cook and I’ll smell like a grilled onion. I can’t take three damn showers, there’s no time!” I said to myself, while Marble was watching me confused. “What are you looking at? Have you finished eating?”

“Meow…”

I sighed again as I took my clothes back on, checking the clock.

It was already 5 P.M. so I had to move fast. I guessed that Samuel wanted to come at 8 or something.

I approached to call him but I hesitated because phone calls made me anxious. Yeah, I'm a cliché. I know.

After all, I decided to text him instead: **_“Hello, Samuel. Michael here. I was wondering if 8 p.m. sounds good to you.”_**

I was so nervous I barely managed to hit send.

An instant reply came back to me: " ** _Sounds perfect.”_ **

To be honest, that was the fastest reply I ever got from someone.

Excited, I took my wallet and ran out the door, heading straight to the store, already decided what I wanted to cook: pasta.

It sounds simple, but I remember people in Los Angeles didn’t eat that on a daily basis, it was considered fancy food. And luckily for me, it was that type of food I knew how to cook best since I had been in college. 

When checked the clock again, it was already 5:30 P.M. 

“Shit,” I slurred.

Besides being a MasterChef, I was a master at being late. I never knew how to manage my time.

Jesus, Samuel was actually thinking I could manage projects by myself.

I started to think that my life was going to be over soon because of that, maybe my meeting with Samuel was that one last good treatment God gives sinners before sending them to burn in Hell for eternity...

Wait, I don't think I believed in God.

“Sir, that’s gonna be fifty dollars,” the cashier told me, bringing me back to reality.

Smiling apologetically, I took out my wallet and paid for what I bought.

I was starting to get tired of that spacing out happening to me. Sometimes I was going so deep into my own thoughts that I wasn’t able to function anymore.

I left the store with some beef, tomato sauce, fresh garlic, onions, herbs and two bottles of red wine. My pasta recipe was pretty simple, but delicious as hell.

As I was walking in a hurry, I suddenly stopped.

The thought hit me like a train: _“What if Samuel is vegan? I didn’t ask him!”_

I began to panic like a chicken before slaughter as I took out my phone and texted Samuel instantly:

**_“Hello, again. I was wondering if you are vegan or something. It’s important for me that my guests like what I cook.”_ **

**_“I’m not vegan, I appreciate you asked, tho. Meat is the main ingredient that makes me function, unfortunately for the poor chicken, because that’s what I choose more often. If I think about it, I never eat beef, I hate the taste.”_ **he replied.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I yelled out loud, in the middle of the street, not caring about the people who looked at me as if I escaped a freak show. 

He didn’t eat beef... and that was exactly what I bought.

_Fucking hell!_

I rushed back to the store as fast as I could and bought chicken breast, without returning the beef though.

When I got back home, finally, I had only one hour left. Going shopping takes more time than you can imagine…

I headed to the kitchen and started preparing all the ingredients. Threw the beef into the freezer, took out my wok pan, all the spices and herbs I needed-and a pot, in which I’ve put water. The pasta's turn into the pot was only after the water was already boiling, because I never cooked soft pasta.

After that, quickly cut the chicken breast into small pieces and gave them a bath in some red wine and spices. 

Usually, Marble was around the kitchen when I was cooking something but this time, he wasn’t. I thought he was probably sleeping in my bedroom.

The smell was irresistible, because I bought the most expensive wine that store had, only because Samuel seemed to be a man of class.

Honestly, I could not wait to get him drunk and watch him make a fool of himself just like everybody does when they get drunk.

Or maybe it was just me who always did that, who knew...

After I’ve put the pasta in the pot, I added some salt to avoid softening and also a bit of olive oil, to prevent them from sticking together, because you never let your pasta stick together. It was always my method and every chef judged me for it.

That didn't stop me, anyway.

It was all done in a half an hour.

Of course I cleaned the kitchen right after I finished, because you also never leave traces behind you, even after you cook.

No one has to know your secrets. 

Then, rushed to the bathroom and finally took that shower I’ve been waiting for. When I got out, I smelled like fresh spring air. With a sigh of relief, I grabbed a white shirt and some blue jeans and got dressed.

When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t like it, though. “Hmm, white makes me look fat and doesn’t go that well with my blonde hair. Also, what if I stain it with wine? “ I asked myself as I took an orange one instead. “Perfect!” I exclaimed while admiring myself in the mirror.

Yeah, I used to talk with myself a lot.

Suddenly, a text from Samuel popped on my phone's screen: " ** _Aren’t you going to tell me where you live? Don’t worry, I won’t kill you :) “_ **

“Oh, he actually has a sense of humor,” I snorted as I unlocked my phone then wrote **_“ It’s Liberty Street 40. I have a gun.”_ **

That was no lie, I actually had a gun and I knew how to use it.

After only five minutes, the doorbell rang. 

“Oh my God, I hope it’s not my neighbor again. This is not the moment,” I pouted loudly.

When I opened the door with a frowning face, Samuel greeted me:

“Hello, neighbor. I brought drinks. I… hope I didn’t bother you,” he muttered, analyzing my grumpy face, which softened up instantly at the sight of him.

“Neighbor? Uh-”

“I live three streets away,” he snorted.

Samuel was in a good mood and I suddenly felt the responsibility to keep his mood up and I became nervous, as usual.

“Right! Come in. You don’t have to take off your shoes, it’s not necessary,” I told him.

“You’re joking, right?” He asked as he gave me _the look._

I chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head. “Uh... of course I am! I just finished cleaning up, I was curious if you’d notice. So, it means I did a good job, didn’t I?”

“Hn, seems like it.”

I noticed he didn’t say “Hmm” like normal people.

A lot of things were really odd about him and I was dying to know more about this weird person. 

“Nice house,” he said as he looked around the hallway. “Enough space to hold a family here. Are you sure you’re not married or something?” he raised an eyebrow at me.

“What?! No way,” I snorted, “nice joke.”

“I know, right? My house is twice as big.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t mock me in my own house,” I pouted.

He just gave me a soft smile back. Even the way we were talking seemed so natural to me. I was overwhelmed by that.

After showing him the way towards the living room, we both took a seat at each end of the table, so we could be face to face, then took both glasses and poured wine in them.

Samuel instantly took a sip, curious. “Nice,” he muttered. “This is definitely from Europe.”

“Oh, how can you tell? Are you a traveler, like I am?” I asked.

“No, I was actually born and raised in Norway.”

“What? But your English sounds perfect. Your accent is a little bit odd, though.”

“Well, I left Norway with my teacher when I was ten years old, travelled the world for three years and then we moved to America.”

“ _Only with his teacher_?” I asked myself in my thoughts, hoping his parents weren’t dead or something. Samuel was looking at me, confused.

“But still…” I added, “you don’t look European at all, your face looks Japanese,” I said, trying to justify my confusion.

“Yeah, it’s weird, I know. Everything about my past looks foggy in my head. Also, my name is from the Bible because my old man was very religious. I actually hate it, but I do not have another. My full name is Samuel Ulseth.”

I still avoided to ask where were his parents, waiting until he said something about them.

It was interesting to me though, the fact that he also thought about his past as being foggy.

I related to that. But why?

“You know I can almost read minds by looking at people’s faces, right?” he inquired.

“No, I-… what do you mean?” I gasped.

I guess my anxious face betrayed me again.

“They both died in the war, Michael. My father died protecting my mother and my mother protected me. I was only nine back then.” 

I guess I forgot to remember that another world war almost killed the entire human population in 2067? I couldn't remember too much, though.

“That’s… sad." I sighed. "I’m sorry that happened to you. Do you know who were your parents protecting you from?”

He took a sip from his wine as he took out his electronic cigarette.

“May I?” he asked.

“Sure, go ahead,” I replied. “But promise me you’ll eat after that.”

He nodded. “Of course. Well, I don’t know exactly what happened, everything was blurry and I panicked. I somehow recognized his voice, though… as if I knew the man from somewhere…” he frowned.

“Let me guess. An old family foe?” I asked.

“Something more than that,” he said while staring blankly across the room. “I… I don’t know, there’s a whole mess in my head about that.”

“I see. Haven’t you wondered what it would be like, for all of us, if that war never happened?” I asked.

“Michael, I already said my head is a mess when it comes to those times. We can’t change the past anyway, so trying to wonder what it would be like, is useless. What we can change is the future… and I want to do that. My project is a start and the future is now. “

“How can developing public areas change the future?” I asked.

“Development is just the first step of this project, the interface. There’s a lot more underneath it…”

“That sounds scary,” I pointed out.

“Mm, it is, actually,” he said as he tasted the food. “This isn’t, though. I love tomato sauce, best regards to the chef.”

“Thank you,” I smiled genuinely. “Do you want to hear something funny? I bought beef before asking you if you’re a vegan.”

“Oh, really? Wow, I bet I gave you a headache. It would’ve been fine with beef too after all, because this wine would have taken away its natural taste that I don’t like,” he said calmly while taking another small bite. 

“Well… what’s done is done,” I sighed, while wanting to bury his face in the food for what he said, because I remembered how I desperately ran to the store to buy chicken instead. “Anyway, you said the project is scary. What did you mean?” 

After swallowing the food in his mouth, Samuel took a sip of wine and made himself more comfortable on the chair. “Michael… I wanted to talk to you in private before the meeting tomorrow. That’s the reason I’m here. I will explain what you will get yourself into and I wanted to make sure you’re okay with everything. You can back away if you don’t share my views.”

“It's fine. I never back away, so tell me everything.” I replied lightly, clearly not prepared for what I was about to hear.

“Our main goal is to wipe out poverty in approximately fifty years and end capitalism in ten years,” he muttered. 

Instantly swallowing the food in my mouth without chewing it, I almost choked. “What?! Wipe out?! End capitalism? So you're not just a neo fascist, you're also some crazy socialist?”

“Relax," he sighed. "I am not going to kill anybody, or start any authoritarian regime, as anyone fears when they hear stuff like this. First of all, I want some categories of people to stop having children. We are working with a pharmaceutical company that is going to develop a vaccine which will do more than protecting someone from a virus. It will also neuter some people, making them unable to have kids.” 

I swear he sounded like the new "Bill Gates" of 2081, every conspiracy theorist's worst nightmare. Even if it wasn't Bill who killed all those people in 2025, from what my parents told me.

"Okay, you're officially nuts," I laughed nervously. "So what's gonna be like, a biological weapon? A virus, then the vaccine comes in as the big salvation?"

“I'm not creating any of that, because I’m not trying to decrease the population, I want exactly the opposite, which is an utopia," he explained calmly. "The problem is not how many people live on Earth, it's about how they live. We won’t do this until we’ll be able to target the right type of people. By neutering mostly uncultured and ignorant people, the difference of class and category will be eliminated completely in less than eighty years as no ignorance will be spread to new generations. People that will remain will value health, education, hard work... so, corruption will also be discouraged. People with bad genes will gradually disappear. Dangerous mental health issues will not be passed on to generations so carelessly and so on. This planet will be reborn without causing a disaster. It’s just science.”

 _Great, neo-Marxism combined with fascism, everyone's freaking dream, right?_ I mean, neo-Marxism doesn't sound that bad, but boy, those fascist ideas would give anyone the creeps.

I tried to object. "No, it's-"

Samuel cleared his throat for a second, then took another sip of wine. “This thing is huge and it will need a lot of research and work, I am aware of that. Data will be collected about people without stopping, the data we get will be sent to hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and so on, but they will need to be careful, because we don’t want to neuter couples who are mentally healthy, educated, couples or single parents who would offer their offspring everything they need to become a normally developed human being that will grow up to be a good contribution to society and the world. “

“The _perfect, normal_ human being… you sound like Hitler,” I criticized his god complex with a frown.

Samuel frowned as well. “I don’t want to create a Master Race, I want to free humanity from its flaws. These flaws I mentioned, that hurt people everyday, and that is why life on Earth seems like hell already. People suffer too much because they are selfish. They want children just for themselves, to take selfies with them, and brag about them, just like they would do with their pets. In those cases, the child is the one to suffer in the future, or might become just like the parents and contribute to ignorance. Infertile couples will be encouraged to adopt children though, if they have qualities as parents but they lack money, for example. If they lack money, the government will help them, we'll raise funds, anything that would help. A lot of people deserve children but can't have them. Any child deserves a second chance.”

“Oh, so you might run for president too,” I snorted.

“No thanks, I am a person who works in the shadows. I don’t need to run for President, I have a lot of acquaintances in the political world. They have more than enough influence.”

“I see,” I nodded after swallowing the wine in my mouth. "But _it is_ a Master Race, what you just described. Human means flawed, Samuel."

“Not necessarily. Yes we all have flaws, but mental ones can be erased. Did you know a lot of them come from incest? Also, if the adopted children or other children will become a threat to this social peace, we’ll neuter them too, but try to find them a purpose so they can at least be happy... then maybe in the future, _they_ will develop themselves and will be granted the right to adopt a child. You know, a child is a person, not a pet. A child needs to be fought for in every way possible, you can't give birth to a kid and not care how she or he feels, even pets have feelings.”

I sighed, because his last point made sense, indeed, but he was still wrong in so many ways. “Samuel… your idealistic dream sounds too perfect to be true, and this will be so obvious, you truly have no idea. Ordinary people notice when the government plots against them. They notice even if they are stupid. It’s a primary, natural instinct humans have. You, as a human, should know this. We feel anxious when we are threatened, and that feeling will spread across the whole country, then across the whole world. You are basically taking away people's free will and rights to reproduce and it will hurt them. That will happen if you do it as fast as it needs to be done, considering the circumstances. If you do it step by step, you won’t be able to face the speed our population grows with. Every day there are babies born. It’s fighting against the wind. I respect your final goal, but… you can’t do it without starting another war,” I explained.

“I don't intend to fight against the wind, I intend _to be the wind_ and convince people to let themselves be blown in the right direction," he explained.

Oh, that sounded so poetic, but it was actually a scary thing to hear. His ideas were not ordinary. He didn't have the aura of a dictator, but he could clearly be a dictator's shadow.

"I also have other tricks up my sleeve, I can erase memories, too, if needed. My company developed medicine for that.” Samuel sighed as he took another sip of wine and gave me a serious look. “Of course it would be my last resort. I am ready for some scandal too, but not a massive one. Look, I really don't want to hurt anyone. It won't be another war. _It will be a revolution_.” 

Yeah, not unsettling at all. 

I frowned, trying to analyze everything he told me so far, before giving him an answer.

I wanted to act like I wanted to help him though, and even if his ideas scared me a bit, I had a role in this, I felt it, even if I didn't believe in destiny.

_I was there to stop him._

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” I asked.

Samuel gave me a genuine smile. “Tomorrow, you will sign a contract, giving my company permission to access data about you. Promise me you will not tell anyone about these extra details I gave you. We will not talk about those tomorrow.”

Of course, otherwise all the other partners would call him insane before giving up on the project.

“Why me, though? Is it so obvious I hate stupid people and spoiled brats?” 

“No,” he laughed shortly. “You hate capitalism as much as I do, I can tell. You’re the partner I needed, the missing piece of the puzzle.”

I was flattered by that, I must admit.

Wasn’t intending to fall for it, though it felt really weird, like I just joined a Secret Society club or Illuminati and I had to swear secrecy and my full loyalty. 

“Right. Now that we’re all about honesty, I wanted to ask you something,” I muttered. 

“Yes?” he asked, twisting the glass of wine in his hand in a very classy way.

“Are you interested in women, or men?”

“What a stupid question. None,” he answered tediously as he took a sip from the glass. 

I felt like my face fell on the floor just like it happens in cartoons in those moments when the audience goes _"Ooooh."_

_So, he's not here to seduce me. Good. Then why the fuck did he choose me?_

“I liked your food though, I think that should be enough,” he said. "I'm not very social."

I still remained silent as both of us had finished eating. My blood was literally boiling. I needed to find out his strengths, weaknesses, anything. Getting to know him better was what I needed to get under his skin and stop him. But I had no idea what the hell he liked. Besides my fucking food.

“I’m serious, I loved this food," Samuel went on, probably affected by the awkward silence. "It’s been a while since I ate something that was made with such passion and devotion. Did I say I love the fact that you used tomato sauce?” 

I was still silent and totally not flattered or moved at all by his compliments on my cooking skills, also didn't intend to answer his question.

“Are you sure you're okay?” he asked me directly as his tiny smile disappeared from his face.

“Yes. It’s just getting late and so much food usually makes me feel tired. Maybe you should head home too, we both deserve a good rest,” I suggested, trying to look unclouded. 

He leaned back on the chair with his arms crossed, analyzing my face. “Look, I can tell that’s not what you actually wanted to say. You don’t want me to leave.”

I wanted to smile, realizing my plan was going well. But I had to focus on the act.

“What?” I snorted as I (not so) accidentally dropped my fork on the floor.

Samuel snorted as well, which triggered a frown on my face. “Really? So, are you saying I’m lying or something?” I asked him bluntly.

“Well, telling me you’re a manager when you’re actually not, does count as a lie, but that’s not what bothers me,” he muttered as he took another sip from his wine.

I became anxious instantly when he mentioned that, but I was too stubborn to let it show, thinking he won’t notice. He was smarter than I expected. “Wow. Steve told you. Big deal,” I scoffed. "That bastard..."

“Actually, no,” he said as he blinked slowly, smiling. “You can’t just tell me to go home, I live three streets away and it’s only 9 P.M. and also, Steve didn’t say a word about you. It’s good you showed up by yourself, he wasn’t the guy I was searching for. You don't get it, do you?”

“Of course not, where am I lying again?”

“I already told you. You don’t want me to leave, but that’s what you tell people when you get anxious and confused,” he explained as he looked straight into my eyes, trying to intimidate me.

“Confused about what?” I inquired as my foot was dancing impatiently under the table.

“If you’re that curious about what interests me, I already answered your question.”

“No, you didn’t-”

“Just... let me answer the question you should have asked me _instead_ ,” he interrupted me.

That's when it happened- the moment that made me doubt my own existence, deny God’s existence for real and question life itself.

Also, the moment I realized I'll probably never be able to fight against him in any way. At least, that's what I thought at that moment.

He twisted his hand in the air in a weird way, and before I could ask myself what the hell he was doing, my chair suddenly moved by itself and backed away from the table, then got instantly turned right and stopped. Everything happened in a blink of an eye while I was still on the damn chair, holding its edges tightly so I wouldn't fall off. I didn't even have the time to scream.

Shocked, my teeth clenched and my eyes felt like they were going to pop out. I was looking straight ahead as Samuel got up from his seat and came in front of me, squatting so his face could level mine as he placed one of his hands on my knees.

“Now,” he muttered, looking straight into my widened eyes, “do you know what question you should have asked me?”

I barely swallowed the lump in my throat as I caught my breath to speak. “Yeah… ” I whispered, inhaling a good amount of air. “HOW ON EARTH DID YOU DO THAT?!” I stormed, panting. 

Samuel laughed shortly at my reaction, then he got even closer to me, still staring into my eyes.

It felt like I was tied to that chair, I couldn’t move and his face was so close to mine that I felt sweat coming out of my hair.

I didn’t understand anything, it was so surreal.

Something like _"Wait, he has powers? What kind of sci-Fi shit is this?"_

“That’s not the question I want to answer,” he whispered in my ear, giving me goosebumps of terror.

I scoffed, trying to calm down. “Tell me some of my deepest secrets if you know me that much, and maybe I’ll let you hear what you want to hear,” I said.

Honestly, I still have no clue where that demand came from but I guess I wanted to see what else he could do. Survival tactic, I guess?

“Fair enough,” Samuel sighed. “Where should I start? You suffer from depression, anxiety and ADHD, you feel like your parents are total strangers who always pushed people away from you and you left home, your best friend is in jail because she killed someone when she was eighteen and you haven't heard of her since then. After that, you tried to throw yourself off a cliff in the ocean but you changed your mind at the last minute because you thought you heard the moon talking you out of your depressive episode. Also, most of the times when you feel anxious you get sweaty here, at the back of your head.”

That was it. I started shivering.

No one could have known about those things, I never told anyone about them.

Also, no one I knew was aware that Vicky was in jail.

“Okay, you win. I give up…” I sighed. “What I actually wanted to ask you... why are you interested in me?”

“Why do you think I am?” he inquired while gently wiping off the sweat from my neck with the back of his hand, giving me goosebumps again.

“Damn it, I don’t know, your behavior is out of the ordinary, you give me the creeps!" I groaned. "How do you know so many things about me? And why?!"

Yeah, I was getting angry.

Samuel shrugged. "I guessed them."

Yeah, sure.

"Look, before telling you why I am interested in you, I’d like to answer the other question you asked, about how I moved your chair. You see... I’ve got BioTech devices implanted in my wrists which can create or control vibrations and matter around. Everything is made out of those and I can do a lot of stuff like break things, push or pull things, make some things float, change shapes… I can also create sounds, and if I focus enough I can create them only in a small area like someone’s ears if I don’t want them to hear something. Those devices I have receive commands directly from my brain through my nervous system, they are being told exactly what I want to do.”

What I just heard was unbelievable for me in that moment. That was basically _telekinesis_.

Which... I thought wasn't real, I had only seen it in movies.

I know it was 2081, but trust me, ordinary people weren’t surrounded by technology so much anymore, especially after it caused war and especially technology I didn't even hear of or see before.

But apparently, for Samuel, it wasn’t such a big deal, just like that scene from Justice League when Flash asked Bruce Wayne what his superpower was and he simply answered “I’m rich” then drove off.

Unlike Bruce Wayne though, Samuel was bothered by being rich.

“I wish everyone could have access to this kind of science and technology…” he sighed.

“Yeah, but you have to be kind and smart to be able to get a hold of it, otherwise… _poof!_ Another war, “ I told him calmly, forgetting about my question for a moment and getting back into my role.

“Then help me and you’ll only see those kinds of people around in the future.”

“I’ll be too damn old to care anyway…” I scoffed.

“Actually, I forgot to tell you. We are currently working on a revolutionary anti-aging vaccine too. It significantly slows down aging throughout the whole body, all internal organs, so anyone who takes the shot once every ten years could live up to three hundred years or even more, depending on their lifestyle, immunity, genes and overall health. I’ll be the first one to take it after all the research comes to a successful end.”

_Oh, for fuck's sake._

“That sounds amazing," I lied. "but… who would want to live in this world that much? It would be depressing…”

“It won’t be depressing if we work together to make this world a better place. Nature made us equal. Only hard work should make us more worthy or less worthy of something. There are a lot of people out there who deserve a lot more than what they have right now… also many of them don’t deserve what they have at all, many of them are just uncultured, self entitled idiots,” he explained with a very serious expression on his face. "That's what capitalism does and it needs to stop."

Looking at him again, I saw how clean and perfect his skin was. I couldn’t even see his pores, it was unbelievable. He had perfect eyebrows, perfect nose... out of this world. 

Samuel noticed me staring and just smiled as I started shivering because he triggered an anxiety attack in me. I thought he was going to do something weird again.

“Okay,” he sighed, smiling. “Let me finally answer the question that’s still stuck on your mind, because I can see you are a bit tense. It would be a huge lie if I’d tell you I came there to see Steve. I was actually searching for you. Someone recommended you to me.”

I noticed his face got serious again as he distanced himself a little bit. 

“You must understand something about me, though,” he said.

"What is there to know about? Are you a freaking alien or something?” I snorted.

_I was joking, of course._

“So, you don’t like aliens? Would that change anything?” he inquired, raising one eyebrow at me, mockingly.

“What?" I gasped. No. "You’re not… uh, you’re _not_ serious, are you?!” 

Oh boy, I just had to ask that question.

_Welcome back, anxiety._

Samuel sighed. “My parents told me we’re not from here, but I told you I was born and raised on Earth,” he replied as his eyes avoided mine for a second.

So much for the normal evening. He noticed I was staring at him in a weird way and he frowned. 

“Does that make me any different?” he scoffed. “Do you see any extraterrestrial features on my body?” He asked as he started unbuttoning his red shirt. I felt like my eyes were going to pop out again. When he unbuttoned it completely, he spread his arms and scoffed, looking at me. “Well? Why do you look so surprised? Is it because you expected something to come out of my stomach and shit?”

I snorted. That was funny coming from someone I expected to lack a sense of humor.

“I thought you said you know everything about me,” I scoffed. "I don't have anything against it, it's just... scary, okay? Also, I figured your skin is too damn perfect for you to be from this world."

“My skin? What the fuck. No, I do not know everything, I can't actually read minds. Surprisingly, right?" he sighed. "Michael, I feel like we’ve met before… way long ago.”

"Maybe in another life?" I asked, laughing.

“I don't believe in that stuff. Forget it. Let’s call it a night.” he said as he closed his shirt, prepared to leave.

“Okay,” I sighed.

I wanted that night to last forever, but I knew that wasn’t possible. I wanted to ask him so many questions but I did not want to make him angry or something, he still scared me.

As he headed to the door, I followed him. He stopped by the door, smiling at me.

“Thank you for this wonderful evening, alien guy,” I snickered.

“Be quiet, moron. No one has to know about this. Hn... I just felt comfortable enough around you and I told you. I feel warmth around you, you're like a sun,” he said with his usual serious expression.

“Does that make you the Moon?” 

“Who knows? The Moon told you not to kill yourself, didn’t it?”

I gasped, remembering that moment when I was standing at the edge of that cliff. _It made more sense than ever..._

“What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing I spaced out.

“Nothing,” I said, smiling. 

“See you tomorrow then,” he said.

“Good night,” I told him.

He smiled over his shoulder and nodded at me as he stepped out. I sighed as I watched him go for a few seconds, then closed the door and locked it.

I went straight to bed, set my alarm for the next day and turned off the lamp.

Suddenly, I heard a loud thud in the closet.

“What the heck?” I gasped.

  
  



	3. The Wrong Target

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some raypunk vibez.

**Tuesday, August 24, 2081, 00.00 a.m.**

I rushed to open the closet’s door only to see my cat climbing over my clothes and jackets. Also. some hangers fell on the floor.

I sighed. “So, that’s where you’ve been all this time. Get out!” 

“Meow…”

I went back to bed, pouting. Marble scared the shit out of me.

Taking a deep breath, then exhaling it slowly, I knew what was coming the next day was a big challenge for me and it required a good night’s sleep...

But I'm wondering now... how can one sleep so deep that they can’t hear their house being broken into?

It depends…

I woke up and gasped after hearing some sort of explosion that made me instantly jump out of bed like a freaking locust.

Marble was already under it, growling anxiously. I knew if I hid there too, probably the asshole would scratch me because of panic.

Instead, I ran into the closet and shut the door. Of course I took my phone with me, ready to call the police, when I suddenly saw a weird green light coming through the space between the floor and the closet door and also some strange sounds, like a scanner or something.

“Search everywhere! We need to find him and leave this filthy planet, I’m already sick of it! It’s an order!!” I heard a male voice coming from the living room.

As I swallowed dry, I came to the conclusion that the police would be useless in my case. It was obvious, so I called Samuel instead, as it felt like an unordinary situation in which I was sure I'd end up dead.

The phone rang twice, then he answered:

“Michael?” I heard his sleepy voice. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“Quick, there’s no time! There are some alien freaks in my house and they want to take me! You need to get here and tell them to leave me alone, they're your friends right?!” I whispered as clearly as I could.

“What?! Alien freaks?” Samuel mumbled as if I was joking.

“Yes, come quickly!”

Then I heard a gunfire and my cat growled.

Only once, then silence settled in. My heart rate increased and it felt as if my soul left my body.

With my eyes wide open, I started shivering. “Oh my… God, they-… they killed my cat!!!” I squealed like a kid as the closet door opened.

I could barely see because of so much green light, but the figure looked human, wearing a weird costume.

He pointed a gun at me, after scanning the whole closet with a bracelet. I swallowed dry again as sweat was coming down my face.

“Michael? Are you okay?! Michael!” I heard Samuel through the phone.

“They-… they found me…” I mumbled my last words as I dropped my phone on the floor because of how much my hands were shaking. 

The strange figure stepped closer and crushed my phone.

I turned into stone, couldn’t even scream.

That gun was pointed at my forehead, releasing a sharp noise as I instantly passed out. 

* * *

When I woke up, my vision was so blurry I could barely see a thing.

While it was getting clearer, I saw someone standing right in front of me with arms crossed. I was sitting on some sort of armchair, probably in a spaceship, considering the surroundings and the fact that they were talking about leaving Earth.

When I tried to turn my head right to see more, I realized my neck was tied to the armchair and I suddenly felt a throbbing pain taking over my whole body as I grunted loudly.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, because that collar stings your neck with fifty micro needles that release adrenaline in your body, causing you to become agitated and hurt yourself even more, until you die in pain,” said the same male voice I heard in my house. 

Great, that calmed me down, for sure.

When my vision cleared completely, I realized it was a woman.

Her hair was white, she had no eyebrows and her eyes were bright green. Her skin, pale as snow.

“What?! You’re a woman?” I cringed. “But your voice sounds like you're a man! What the hell are y-”

“Fuck you, transphobic asshole! My voice sounds like that also because of this,” she said, showing me a collar attached to her neck. “I broke my vocal chords and replaced my real voice with the voice of my father. He was killed by a **kek’ar aryun** , like you.”

What a weirdo, why would anyone do that?

Daddy issues.

“What’s a kek’ar aryun?” I asked, confused.

She clenched her fist, got closer and bent in front of me as she grabbed my shirt angrily. “Don’t act like you don’t know, scumbag!” she hissed. “You and your filthy royal family killed my father!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I pouted.

“Tch! Did they also erase your memory when they sent you to Earth?! Your bloodline makes me sick! Your real parents hate you so much that they sent you on a different planet together with strangers!” She snapped as she released my shirt and sighed in disgust. “Ceroy, scan his DNA to confirm he’s a damn kek’ar aryun and he’ll be convinced. Then, we’ll leave this filthy planet and take him with us on Krul,” she ordered to a red haired man sitting behind a computer.

He typed something on the keyboard and a weird metal tentacle came out of a wall and stopped in front of me. A green light came from it, scanning me from upside down. 

_“ **Kek’ar aryun match not found** ,”_ the computer voice said.

The woman gasped. “Impossible,” she muttered. “We got the wrong target!?”

She went to another computer, pressed a button and a hologram that looked like a browser window appeared. It looked like she started a video call.

Their technology looked older than what we had on Earth before the war, that's for sure. 

_**“Connection** **successful** ,”_ the computer said as an image of a man popped up. 

“Yes, commander Aymera,” the man answered.

“You blew it, Keppa! You led us to the wrong target! He isn’t a kek’ar aryun, good luck we decided to check! You idiot!” the woman hissed.

“Your target was at that address, I swear!” the man defended himself. “I checked at 9 P.M., Earth’s hour!”

“Tch! Did you at least try to scan the target, to confirm, you idiot?!”

“No, Miss Aymera, I was sure we got the right one-”

“You’re fired, Keppa. See you when I get back on Krul,” she snarled as she ended the video call. “Erase this idiot’s memory then teleport him back into his house, he’s useless. I don’t want to leave any traces behind us, we can’t kill him.” she demanded. "We'll find that Uhyra scumbag, I can feel he's close."

“Roger that,” the man from the computer said.

The weird tentacle that scanned me earlier came closer to my face again and released another three smaller tentacles that attached themselves to my head. They started vibrating and I felt forced to close my eyes.

The whole thing kept on going for a few minutes and strangely, I felt like information was being downloaded into my head rather than being deleted, if that makes any sense.

A double beep echoed as the tentacles detached themselves, then the big one returned back into the wall where it came from.

“All done,” the man behind the computer said.

I could still remember everything, though.

It didn’t work, but I chose to act like it, so they could release me. “Where… where am I?” I asked, acting confused. I felt dizzy, anyway.

Suddenly, something was pointed at at the back of my head as I heard that familiar sharp sound again before passing out.

* * *

My eyes were open again.

There I was, back at home, in my bed.

I instantly felt like I was about to puke, so I got up rashly, coughing like hell.

“Michael! Are you okay?” Samuel's voice echoed from the hallway.

I also heard his rushed footsteps heading to the bedroom, then he appeared in front of me, looking really worried as he noticed my neck and gasped.

He attempted to touch it, and when he did, I squirmed away, grabbing his hand in defense.

“Don’t… it hurts like hell,” I moaned. “I’ve been stung fifty times by some weird needles…h-how am I back at home?”

“I think they used teleportation to send you back, because I checked the bedroom one hour ago and you weren't here. Stand still,” Samuel told me, while he went out of the bedroom and came back in a minute with a little bottle in his left hand. 

He opened it and poured some of the liquid on his palms, rubbing them against each other, then placed them around my neck and started massaging it as softly as he could.

“Ouch,” I groaned.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Samuel whispered as my mom used to do when I was a kid. “Lay there,” he pointed out, taking his hands away from my neck.

I did what he said, then he started moving his palms close to my neck again, making me feel a tingling sensation all over that area, including my head.

It felt relieving. Unfortunately, he stopped after a minute or so.

“Done,” he said. “Does it hurt if I touch you?”

“It just feels like I have sore muscles now,” I answered. “Thank you…” I smiled at him, as I realized how nice it was to see his warm, caring behavior.

I was aware the danger had passed and I felt safe.

“No problem. I… I buried your cat,” he sighed. "I didn't even notice you had one... I love cats."

I looked away for a few seconds as a tear came from one of my eyes, lingering on my cheek. I instantly wiped it off, sniffing. 

“I’m sorry,” Samuel said with a soft tone.

“Yeah… I guess he’s in a better place now… or at least that’s what I’d like to think.”

Samuel leaned closer and hugged me tightly, while running his fingers through my hair.

Why did I accept that gesture, as he was a part of my family or something, is what was going through my head before I remembered about what happened on that spaceship.

“I think it's you they were after,” I muttered with my face buried in his shirt because my face ached.

“I know,” he sighed. “I heard everything. I knew they will let you go, though. These guys usually don't like to stand out.”

“What?” I gasped. "What do you mean you heard everything?"

He kept combing my hair with his fingers, until he stopped and plucked something off a hair strain.

“This. It’s a nano recording device,” he explained, showing it to me.

So he wasn't combing my hair, just looking for that weird thing. It was unbelievably small, I could barely see it. 

“Why was it in my hair?” I asked.

He sighed. “Honestly, I wanted to see if you’d tell anyone what we talked about…”

“So, you still don’t trust me…” I frowned.

I knew I needed to get under his skin and gain his trust and with that, it seemed even harder. Something was odd emotionally, though. He kept making me feel as if... he was my brother or something. 

I guessed I could use that.

Samuel sighed again, blinking slowly, in the way he always did. “I’m sorry. I never trust anyone. Please forgive me.”

“Yeah, it’s fine, at least you knew I wasn't in danger, right?" I said. "It seems like you did find out other things, though…”

He frowned. “About that… I’m wondering how wasn't your memory erased… because I know that procedure from somewhere.”

“I don’t know, I guess it didn’t work, they did something wrong, perhaps," I shrugged. "Do you believe the things they said, though? About you being sent to Earth with fake parents? Also, what's a kek'ar aryun? What's an Uhyra?” I inquired, cluelessly.

“I don’t know either. You asked so maaany questions," he chuckled. Then, with a short sigh as his face frowned, he muttered: "I only know I'm not from Earth. I'm as clueless as you are about the other things. I need to find out more. Maybe they're the ones who killed my parents. Maybe my whole life has been a lie. Maybe this planet is in danger now. This house is definitely not safe anymore. We must leave,” he demanded with a low tone in which anxiety could be easily recognized.

“What?” I gasped. "Leave?"

“You heard me. I’ll make a few calls, ask some of my employees to take care of your house and also fix the door, donate all your food to charity and postpone the meeting until 5 P.M. Take some clothes you like and we’ll leave in an hour.”

"Uh, okay." I murmured as I watched him head out of the room.

I remained there, spaced out.

Things started to get serious. I already knew my life wasn’t going to be the same, ever again.

I could’ve been killed by those guys though, but I got lucky as hell.

It was _him_ they were looking for. Obviously, lot of questions started bothering me.

I didn’t even care about what I needed to leave behind, I just wanted to stay alive and stop Samuel's extreme plans, but I was also sure as hell I didn't want him to end up into the hands of those freaks.

Because Samuel didn't deserve that, did he?

Honestly, it was that moment when I realized once again that I didn't want to die.

My thoughts were playing tricks on me, wondering if Samuel had been there when I wanted to kill myself five years before. Maybe it hadn’t been the Moon talking to me, maybe it was him and I thought it was the Moon because of the drugs I took that day. Otherwise... why did I feel like I knew him, right?

Also, it was very strange, that feeling I had when those guys were supposed to erase my memory. Samuel was right, how could it not work? I felt like I suddenly had more thoughts and memories than I had before, but I couldn’t explain to myself how was that possible...

“Yes, bring a new door,” Samuel's voice interrupted my thoughts, as he was talking on the phone in the living room while I got up from bed to start packing. ”Yes, let me measure it… one hundred and ninety centimeters high and sixty centimeters wide. I’ll send you some pictures with other details, thank you.”

Then I heard him dialing another number.

“Good morning John, I’m sorry to bother you so early, but I need to book a suite for two. Proceed the payment with the last card I used. I’ll be there in less than two hours. Thank you, see you soon.”

He didn’t say goodbye when he ended the calls.

That was weird, many people would consider it rude. But he wasn't an ordinary person.

Shortly after, I heard his footsteps heading to my bedroom. When he saw my luggage, he sighed.

“No, you won’t need all that. Take half of it,” Samuel said with a serious tone. “You’ll have everything you need where we’re going. Don’t worry, your house won’t be set on fire and your clothes will still be here.”

“'Kay mom,” I pouted.

After a few minutes, I was done. "Now, what?"

“We leave. My car is already here," Samuel said. 

“What?” I asked as I looked out the window and saw a huge car parked in front of my house. “Did it drive itself here?” 

“It’s a Tesla, of course it did.”

“That explains a lot,” I hummed.

Such a pity Tesla doesn't exist anymore now. 

“Let’s go, he said.”

“How far are we going?” I asked.

“About an hour away to the South, near Long Beach.” Samuel replied as music started playing after he pressed a button. It was electronic music, I think it was synth or something.

Why wasn't I surprised? The whole thing felt like a sci-Fi movie, anyway.

I sighed in relief as I leaned on the back of the chair, closing my eyes and getting ready for my life to change.

Honestly, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, I could’ve just told Samuel to leave me alone and to never hear from him again, but there I was, with him in his cool car, scared, confused and excited despite all that.

It just felt _right_ , I couldn't even imagine a scenario where I would had said no.

I guess I understand why now...

“Let’s hit the road,” Samuel said as the car's engine started.


	4. Perspectives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it's a nice holiday, or maybe it's the beginning of a disaster. Welcome to Tishagate Hotel!

I suddenly gasped as I hit my head against the car's window.

“You're awake, dreamy princess?" Samuel mocked me. "Look outside."

“So this isn’t a dream...” I mumbled with a sleepy voice as my vision was still clearing up.

I looked outside and saw a breathtaking view. The ocean in all its glory.

Blurry blue, just like my eyes.

“Wow, this is really nice!” I exclaimed happily.

“I know, right? Let’s speed up a little,” Samuel said.

“Let’s _what_? No, no, slow down!” I yelled. “We’re on a hill!”

Laughing out loud, like a psychopath, he turned his face at me: “Are you ready to fly?”

I gasped. “Ready to what?!”

The car sped up even more as Samuel was looking straight ahead again, still smiling. I felt like my heart wanted to get out of my chest and leave me there with that psychopathic alien. Suddenly, the car was rising… up into the air. 

“Whoa, shit!!!” I shuddered as I buried my fingers into the chair. 

“Don’t faint, you’ll need to see this!” Samuel shouted, trying to conquer the engine's noise.

_Yeah, the car was flying._

“Oh my GOD!!!” I yelled my lungs out as I covered my face with both of my palms.

I know it sounds completely stupid when I think about it, but no, flying cars didn't exist at that time.

Yeah, with all that technology available, a technology that started a damn war and killed people, with all of that, flying cars were no part of it. 

So I had no idea how could Samuel's car could fly. It being a Tesla had nothing to do with it.

“Just look below us!” Samuel shouted again.

I got the courage to uncover my face, only to be amazed by what I saw. “Holy shit…”

The view was so breathtakingly beautiful I could not stop looking, I felt as if I died and actually went to Heaven.

It looked like the edge of the Earth. A huge blue ocean and just a little bit of land, full of high buildings. 

“That’s where we’ll stay,” he pointed at the first building below us. “Hold tight, we’re going to land on the roof,” he warned me.

 _"Whaaaaat?"_ I squealed like a kid.

The sound of the engine changed. I noticed these things even if I didn’t have a driver's license.

While we were landing, I remembered why I always hated traveling by plane. The feeling of your stomach floating wasn't nice at all.

I saw us going down really fast and somehow, I know it sounds bad, but I didn’t know if Samuel was aware of what he was doing.

“Relax," he said softly, noticing how anxious I got. "Nothing bad is going to happen. Trust me, driving and piloting this beauty is like a child’s game for me.”

Apparently, he knew how to whoop my anxiety’s ass really well, at least. We landed perfectly.

“That’s it?” I asked, confused. “It wasn’t so bad…”

“That’s because, as I said, I know what I’m doing,” he scoffed confidently.

When we got out of the car, a butler wearing a black suit was already there, waiting for us.

“Welcome back to Tishagate hotel, sir Ulseth,” he said to Samuel.

Samuel nodded at him, formally. “Glad to be back, John. Please prepare the meeting room for me at 5 P.M.”

“Of course. May I ask why are you still in pyjamas and flip-flops, sir?”

I snorted and Samuel's face cringed a little. “It’s… a long story.”

“Right. Let me lead you to your suite,” John said, smiling politely.

“We’ll take a little walk to the beach before settling in and we’ll come back,” Samuel said, looking at me for approval.

“Yeah, awesome,” I said. 

“Alright then, I’ll take your luggage to the suite,” the butler said politely.

“Thank you, John.”

We both followed him inside. Despite the hotel’s modern look on the outside, the design inside looked very old.

When I saw how small was the elevator, I swallowed dry as I grabbed Samuel's arm like a little kid.

“Oh my god, are we going to fit in there?”

“Don’t be such a lady,” Samuel mocked me.

I scoffed as we went in.

“Your suite is at level four,” the butler informed us. “Not too high and it has full ocean view, just like you always requested, sir Ulseth.”

“Perfect,” Samuel smiled.

Apparently, the hotel had twenty levels. I started breathing faster when I felt we were going down. I was such a weakling back then I can barely believe it.

When the elevator stopped at level four, the butler got out with our luggage. Actually, just mine as I realized that Samuel didn't take anything with him.

“Thank you John, see you later," Samuel said as the elevator's doors closed.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You look pale,” he told me.

“I’m fine, just a little anxious, as usual,” I explained.

The elevator stopped as we reached the lobby level. 

“What a weird design these people chose,” I pointed out.

“It’s called vintage, I think it’s nice,” Samuel scoffed.

“Yeah, but from the outside, you’d expect more… minimalism,” I said.

"Some people still appreciate real taste these days," Samuel replied.

"It still looks boring..."

"If you say so," he rolled his eyes.

As we got out of the elevator, we passed through the lobby while Samuel said hello to some of the other butlers there before we went outside.

The fresh ocean breeze made me feel thankful to be alive and grateful to myself for choosing to go with Samuel.

As I said, it felt so... right. Maybe it was because I knew I was there to stop him, to change his views about the world...

I got so excited when I saw the blue water in front of us that I took his hand and smiled at him as wide as I could.

“Let’s go!” I told him.

Samuel smiled back at me and we started running towards the beach.

It was 9 A.M., the sun was shining and we were both wearing PJs and flip-flops.

I’d call _that_ a perfect Tuesday morning.

No going to work, no seeing Steve and all my annoyingly jealous co-workers, just being in front of the sea with my new alien friend. Who would wish for more?

I swear I forgot about what happened the night before, despite the fact it's been crazy. Only 12 hours passed since Samuel had stepped into my life and everything already felt like an odd Sci-Fi movie.

We stopped to take our shoes off, letting the waves hit our feet.

The feeling of peace I had in that moment was to never be forgotten. After all, I felt like I deserved it.

“Let’s go for a swim, what do you say?” I suggested.

“Now?” he asked, surprised. “Hn, fine, count me in.”

We both took off our shirts. I didn’t get to throw mine on the ground yet as I saw Samuel already running towards the waves.

“Asshole, wait for me!” I shouted.

He jumped into the water, straight through a wave and I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Oh my god. Don’t panic, don’t panic, just follow him,” I said to myself.

I ran towards the water, inhaled a good amount of air and jumped in. When I opened my eyes underwater trying to search for Samuel, they stung a little because of how salty the water was. As I kept looking for him, I suddenly felt something pinching my foot and I instantly reached for the surface, panicked like hell, continuously turning around.

Samuel popped out of the water right next to me, laughing. “How can someone be so easy to scare?”

“Seriously?!” I pouted. “I thought it was a stingray or something!”

“Calm down, pussy,” he told me as he swam closer to me. “Look.”

As he twisted his hand in the air a very graceful way, the water around us started moving, but not how normally water currents move - the water was kind of dancing.

Little swirls were forming in it, all of them having different rotation speed.

It looked... magical.

“Are _you_ doing this?” I asked him as I widened my eyes at the magical swirls.

“Obviously,” he nodded.

The waves sounded like the were singing.

“Okay, are you a merman too, or, like, Aquaman? Do you come from a planet of mermen?”

He laughed. “No, but I have some tricks of my own. It's called technology. You’re so childish, mermen don't exist. Come on, let’s dive a little, I'll show you something else."

We both swallowed a good amount of air and went underwater.

His swimming speed was also amazing.

We stopped after a few meters, and he looked at me, somehow trying to communicate with me without talking, and pointed at the sea floor, suggesting me to look at it as he waved one of his hands again moving his fingers like he had puppet strings attached to them.

Bubbles started coming out of the sand, revealing small fish, little stingrays and other small creatures that use to hide under the sand.

Scientifically explained, he was playing with the oxygen molecules in the water. 

Why could someone as amazing as him would want to hurt people?

Suddenly, I felt like I needed air and reached for the surface as Samuel followed me.

The first breath I caught felt like life force.

When Samuel got out though, he didn’t seem to have been in need for too much air. I was amazed.

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed as I noticed his skin. “What the hell, why is your skin glowing in the sun?”

“It's not,” he said.

“Yes it is,” I insisted. "It looks like fresh snow!"

“It must be the salt in your eyes. Everything I can do is thanks to science, but skin can't sparkle, this isn't Twilight," he mocked me.

I started thinking he wasn't fully aware of what he was or what he could do. 

“I know that, but you're an alien!” I scoffed. “Whatever. Let’s go back, I’m hungry."

I started thinking it was indeed the salt in my eyes, even if I tried blinking multiple times and still saw his skin glow.

“I guess we could use a good rest,” he agreed.

We swam back to the shore. As we stepped into the hotel, I felt a strange energy around that I haven’t felt before. 

Then, that butler, John, appeared. 

Now I wish I listened to my gut, but oh well, who does.

“Welcome back,” he said. “Your access cards are ready, sir,” he said as he handed Samuel a set of cards with a number series on each.

Apparently they were used instead of keys. He also gave us our jackets we left by the entrance when we went to the beach.

“Thank you,” Samuel said politely. “We’d like some coffee, too.”

“Everything is already prepared. You’ll find breakfast and coffee in your suite,” John said.

“Wow, nice. Thank you!” I said excitedly, trying to act normal.

“You’re welcome.” John said as he gave me a flashy once over. 

I guess my "normal" wasn't normal from his point of view, though.

Samuel looked at me and tilted his head in the elevator’s direction, meaning he was suggesting we should go.

I nodded back, then we headed there.

Before reaching the elevator though, Samuel stopped by the reception desk. There was John again, and another two butlers.

What I didn’t understand was who owned that hotel, but I wasn’t planning to ask either.

The answer might have frightened me.

“I wanted to say you’re all as welcoming and pleasant as you always were. You never disappoint, John,” Samuel told them.

“Well, thank you, sir Ulseth, we appreciate that,” John said, sketching a tight smile.

Samuel smiled back at him as he reached into one of his jacket’s pockets and took out his wallet, from which he pulled out a check.

Then, he suddenly used his Bio Tech “powers” to pull out a pen from his jacket straight into his hand.

I made a confused sound, but the others were not surprised at all, as if they had seen what Samuel could do before.

That strange energy I felt when we came back overwhelmed me again as a frown crossed my face.

“Spread this between you guys,” Samuel said to John as he wrote **fi** **ve thousand dollars** on that check, then signed it. 

“Sir Ulseth, you already paid…” John gasped.

“Shut up,” Samuel scoffed and handed him the check, then he turned right at me with a calm expression.

“We can go upstairs now,” he told me.

“Uh, right…” I mumbled in shock.

Something clearly seemed _off_ as both of us got into the elevator and pressed the command button.

We didn’t speak at all during the time we were going up because I was still confused by what just happened.

When we finally got out, Samuel broke the awkward silence: “You didn’t tell me if you like this place.”

“Oh. Of course I do, it’s amazing,” I assured him as I chuckled nervously. 

“Then what’s wrong? You’re usually very talkative.”

_"Usually", as if he had known me for years._

I got nervous. “Nothing, I’m just… processing things slower, perhaps,” I responded. “Yeah, that’s it.”

“Hn. Okay. Here we are,” he said as he took out one of the access cards.

He put it close to a tiny screen on a door which made a sharp sound as a green light appeared, just like it happens when you’re paying with contactless cards.

The door opened, pulling itself into a passage in the wall. An automatic sliding door in a hotel like that.

Why would I be surprised after what I just witnessed?

“This is our suite. What do you think?” he asked.

“Wow, I…”

We suddenly stepped into a huge room full of light. I’m not good at describing places at all, but let me tell you that one left me speechless. It was so different compared to the rest of the hotel. The wall was made of glass and all we could see was that enormous blue ocean and the sky.

“Holy noodles,” I said, shocked, as I remained by the entrance, without stepping in.

“Come on in, I won’t kill you, not in such a peaceful place,” Samuel mocked me after he laughed at the way I swear.

I snorted and followed his lead. As he opened another door, I gasped when I saw what was in there as well. Glass walls, again.

“This is where we’ll sleep,” he explained.

“Jesus Christ. It’s so amazing. Looks like a place where you can’t have any privacy at all, but then… the ocean is the only thing facing us. I’ve never seen anything like this my whole life, and I like to travel. I guess this is what rich people see very often.”

Samuel sighed as he gave me a serious look. “Yeah, isn’t that sad? Everyone should see this everyday, without having to be rich.”

I scoffed in disapproval. “Come on, this place is expensive as hell. You just gave those guys a lot of extra money. Maintaining hotels like these isn’t cheap...” 

“But it should be,” he objected. “It’s just glass, the hotel itself doesn’t have to be like this one. People barely afford to come see the ocean, which saddens me a lot.”

“That’s capitalism, Samuel. Despite a war made us go through hell, this damned system hasn’t fallen.”

“It will. Mark my words.”

I smiled, seeing him so determined. It inspired me in a way.

 _I still had to stop his nazi plans, though_.

“By the way, these windows are UV-filtered,” he said. “You can’t see inside if you’re outside. I will show you tonight after the meeting.”

“Is it going to last that long?” I asked.

“I don’t think so, but the point is I want to show you something after the meeting. We should eat now,” he suggested. 

“Yeah, we should.”

We headed to the kitchen which by the way, also had a sea view. That place was all about the ocean and I realized it made my anxiety go away.

Took a seat at the table and started eating. I had boiled eggs, bacon, salads and sandwiches. The coffee was also delicious.

After I drank it and finished eating, I yawned.

“Yeah, I don’t think this coffee will do any good, you must be tired as hell after the rough night you had. We should take a nap, we have plenty of time,” Samuel suggested.

“Sounds good.”

As we went back in the bedroom, Samuel opened one of the windows, and we could hear the waves crashing against the shore. The sound was incredibly calming.

I went to bed as he followed me after a few moments of admiring the view.

“We might be better off here than L.A.,” I told him.

Samuel sighed, then nodded at me as he tucked himself into bed.

“You’re right,” he sighed in what appeared to be relief.

* * *

A loud thunder woke me up.

When I looked outside, the sky was almost black, so I knew heavy rain was about to fall. The window was open and cold wind reached my back, making me shiver.

I looked at Samuel, who was still sleeping but his arms were crossed and his face was also crossed by a frown. I thought he was having a bad dream so I decided to wake him up.

“Hey, Samuel. Wake up," I whispered in his ear.

He shivered a little before he opened his eyes. Seeing me, he looked somehow confused. “You’re _here_ …” he muttered.

“Of course I’m here, where else would I be?” I asked, confused.

_Why does this guy act like this around me? It's as if he's my brother or something..._

“I don’t know, I had a strange nightmare," he said, interrupting my thoughts. "Someone telling me I should stay away from you…”

“Probably it was because those bastards abducted me yesterday,” I said, convinced it was that. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”

Even I was wondering where that confidence came from. Samuel turned around, looked outside and sighed. “What time is it?” he asked me.

“It’s 3 P.M.,” I answered. “We slept a lot.”

“Yeah. I need to text everyone I invited to the meeting, making sure they all come, especially Scott Aiden.”

“Who is that?”

“An important investor that offered support to my father’s company since I was just a kid. You should have heard of him. But you’re not actually Agra’s manager, so...”

“Guilty,” I pleaded, laughing. “Doesn’t that concern you? I don’t know how to lead a project.”

“Don’t hop into Depression Express yet, you’ll do just fine,” he reassured me. “I knew from the start you’re not the manager, but I said that in order to persuade Steve into saying so.”

Yeah, apparently he could do that too.

“What? Why?” I asked.

“Because I wanted to meet you, not him. I came there looking for you. I tried to tell you last night, at your house, but you kept asking me silly questions.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?” 

“You see, since I was eighteen, I’ve been having some strange dreams about someone I should meet, or about someone I used to know that made me remember home… I only knew the first letter from his name, which was N.”

I looked at him confused as hell.

“You said your second name is Nathan, right? In my dream, I could also see the boy was blonde and had blue eyes, just like you. Everything was blurry, though. The dreams started to fade as I grew older, but last week I saw Agra Corporation’s promotion video online and there was Steve, talking about how successful you can become if you get hired. As he started showing around, I saw you coming from behind, you handed him some papers as you said hello to the camera, waving and smiling. I gasped when I saw you and I remembered about the dreams I used to have. The night after I saw the video, I had a dream like that again. I could feel a certain energy when I had those dreams. I decided I wanted to meet you, out of curiosity, despite the fact I’m not usually very curious about people. When we shook hands, I felt the same warm energy those dreams used to give me.”

“So…” I mumbled, “Your dreams were telling you to _come and meet me_?”

I remembered that I felt strange too when we shook hands, but I didn’t mention it.

“Somehow, yes. I’m pretty sure, that's why I was confused when Steve introduced you as Michael and not Nathan, but you reassured me when you said you're also named Nathan as well,” he explained. “I also noticed you have huge potential and yet you’re using a small percentage of your brain, like something is blocking it, which is weird, I haven’t seen that in any _human_ before.”

“You’re mocking me, right?” I snorted.

_Not human?_

“I’m afraid I’m not. I can sense these things. If you unlock your potential, something makes me believe that you and I can do great things together. No more wars, no more miserable lives… maybe that’s why those dreams were telling me to meet you, it was the Universe,” he laughed shortly at the end as he looked at the ocean.

That was so sweet to hear. He smiled and it was so genuine. His nazi plans suddenly sounded innocent. But... they were not.

I began feeling strange right in that moment, all of a sudden. My brain started playing tricks on me as I found myself questioning everything, going deeper into my thoughts and memories than I ever did before.

Then, I felt an instant, throbbing pain in my head. As I closed my eyes because of the pain, I stopped hearing the storm outside, as if I stopped hearing completely.

With my eyes shut, out of nowhere, I saw a weird vision, like a flashback with me and Samuel... but we looked _younger_. 

**_“You’re not too interested in science, now, are you?”_** his voice perfectly echoed in my head.

I instantly frowned as I opened my eyes, panting. “What the hell!” 

It felt so... real.

“Are you okay?!” Samuel asked me, touching my shoulder, worried. “You were spaced out for almost a minute… what happened?”

“I-”

Thinking if I should tell him about what I saw I gestured vaguely, but I didn’t want to look like an idiot because he just told me about his dreams, so I decided not to say anything about it.

_It would’ve been too much of a coincidence._

“I felt a sudden headache. It must be from this weather,” I lied.

“Is it gone now?” he asked, concerned. “Maybe those guys damaged your brain last night, trying to erase your memories. You’ll need medical attention as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, I think so. We should get ready for the meeting now,” I suggested, trying to change the subject.

Besides that strange thing that happened, I was getting really nervous because I wasn’t used to being surrounded by educated people and that meeting really scared me, for Samuel didn’t give too many details, so I was confused.

I was thinking again about that flashback I saw in my head, though.

It looked like a memory, but that was impossible because I didn’t know Samuel in high school, did I?

“Michael?” I heard Samuel calling me while waving at me as if I went blind.

“Huh?” I gasped.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You keep spacing out.”

“Yeah. I’m a little bit nervous, don’t mind me,” I told him.

“Hn. Okay,” he said as he lent me his hand to help me get up from bed, then I followed him in front of a huge sliding door. He opened it and my eyes were amazed by how many clothes were in there.

“Wow, you were serious when you said this place has everything we need.”

“Yup. Okay, so, what colors do you usually wear?” he asked me as he placed both hands on his waist. “Here are business shirts in every shade, just like makeup.”

“Wow, I’m totally freaked out right now,” I sassed, gesturing with my hands in the air excitingly.

I realized I sounded so girly, I laughed. I felt like I turned into Steve.

Samuel snorted when he heard me as we stepped forward into the closet, which, by the way, was the size of a whole boutique. “Do these fit you?” he asked me, showing me a whole row of shirts and pants in different colors.

“If they fit my thick ass, it’s okay,” I snickered. "I also brought some pants of mine too."

“No, those are regular pants. You don’t want to look like a loser, right?”

“Uh… I guess?” I scoffed. “What’s wrong with my regular pants?”

I heard his long sigh as his head was hidden between a row of pants. He took a navy blue pair out.

“Try these,” he said, throwing them at me.

“Wow, excuse me, but Steve doesn’t pay me enough in order to cover for those if I ruin them.” I said as I was staring at them.

Samuel scoffed. “Steve’s out of the equation, you’re no longer his employee. You’re mine, now. I texted him this morning and sent him a paycheck.”

He did _what?_

“What? You... bought me out of Agra Corporation? What the heck!” I laughed awkwardly.

That really hurt my pride.

“I have to do what I have to do until capitalism's final fall, even if I have to act like I fucking love it,” he sighed.

“I guess I’m going back to Steve if I ruin your meeting, right? Or if I say dumb shit.”

He gave me a short once over, then went back to searching for shirts.

“If you say dumb shit it means I was wrong about you and you’re not only going back to Steve, but also back to your boring life while I’ll go back to mine,” he said after a few moments.

“What?!” I stormed. “So, if my anxiety gets in the way and I really say something stupid, you forget about me, just like that, right? I mean, why am surprised, we're not even friends! I’m leaving right now,” I scoffed angrily. 

I got really mad, I thought he was just using me and everything he said about his dream had been nothing but bullshit.

Completely forgetting about how I wanted to keep his plans away from becoming a reality, I threw the pants he gave me on the floor as Samuel stopped from what he was doing and looked at me. His face didn’t show any sign of concern and that made me even angrier.

“Don’t give me that look of yours! I’m leaving!” I yelled like a kid when his parents make him angry.

“Don’t be a moron. Anxiety won’t get in your way. Also, I’m never wrong. You’re not going anywhere,” he said calmly.

I scoffed again like _“Oh, yeah? Watch me!”_ as I turned my back at him. “Yeah, sure. How narcissistic can you be? I’m out.” I spat as I sent him a frowned glare over my shoulder.

I was such a drama queen it amuses me now.

As I made a few steps towards the door, convinced I wanted to leave, I suddenly felt that pain in my head again, as if a knife stabbed my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut as I saw another flashback.

This time, I was hugging Samuel. It was snowing and I could hear things again, just like it happened when I saw the first flashback.

_“Your ideas make this world more bearable, **Nathan**... thank you.”_

“No… what is this?!” I grunted out loud, hyperventilating, as I instantly fell on my knees with my hands in my hair, staring at the floor.

I heard Samuel dropping something on the floor as his footsteps were approaching me fast.

“Michael!” he called me.

I couldn’t hear him properly, as if my ears were clogged or something.

He grabbed me, trying to make me stand up on my feet. When I did, I felt so dizzy that I thought I was going to fall on the floor again, but he held me and guided me to the first chair in the way. I sat down and opened my eyes wide, blinking multiple times.

Samuel looked really concerned this time. “Michael… are you okay? You scared the guts out of me.”

“Aren’t you tempted to call me Nathan?” I asked him bluntly.

“What? No, I don’t think so, since you don’t use that name.”

“I’m wondering why I don't use it, though,” I muttered. "I actually hate the name Michael..."

“What the hell are you talking about? You’re bluffing. Look at me,” Samuel said as he grabbed my face and patted it, like people do to someone who is hallucinating or talking absolute nonsense.

“It was winter… but… I can’t remember…” I kept on going with the same things.

“Michael, pull yourself together!” he demanded, shaking me. “Inhale and exhale slowly, three times. Come on, do it. Then tell me what happened.”

I did as he told me and felt like I was calming down a bit as I looked into his eyes. “I had a flashback… like a memory… with the two of us…like brothers” I said almost whispering, because I felt like I lost my strength to speak. I frowned, looking down. “You called me Nathan… and it looked like we were just teenagers,” I went on. “What’s going on, Samuel, why do I see these things?”

He frowned as he grabbed my hand and held it. “I don’t know. That’s how I felt when I was having those dreams about you. Maybe it’s the Universe or some shit.”

I laughed a little. I realized he cracked jokes when he didn’t know what to say. It worked though, it calmed me down.

“You know, I always felt incomplete,” he told me. “Before my… uh, _adoptive_ parents, I guess, died, they told me that feeling would go away when I meet that person that was made to complete me and I’ll just know it’s the right one. They used to say my life isn't my own,” he explained.

“Destiny, huh?” I inquired lifelessly. “That doesn’t explain anything. What I saw, they looked like real memories… they can’t be from another life.”

“Let's calm down and put some fancy clothes on, how about that? We'll deal with problems later.” Samuel said as he gave me his hand to help me get up from the chair and we went back to the closet. Samuel took the white shirt on and while he was closing its buttons, he turned at me, looking for approval. Before I could say anything, he looked at his back in the mirror. 

“This one’s too large on my back,” he complained as he started unbuttoning it. “I need a slimmer size." He said as he took it off, sighed, then aimed to grab another white shirt and put it on. It was definitely tighter and fitted him perfectly. After that, he grabbed a navy blue tie.

“Do you have any preferences?” he asked me, pointing at the ties in the closet.

“Orange,” I answered. 

He gave me a confused glance.

“It’s the color of my soul,” I explained.

“Anyway,” he sighed again, “you have my approval for the outfit you chose.”

“Okay, _boss!_ Let’s just go,” I pouted.


	5. Chess Game

Apparently, meetings were held at the last floor of the hotel, but I expected it to be held downstairs. While we were in the elevator, I started moving my left foot nervously. 

“Calm down, nobody’s going to kill you,” Samuel told me.

“Of course not, because I’ll die from a panic attack before anyone could,” I scoffed.

When we arrived at the last floor, I felt like I was in a movie full of rich people.

We entered the meeting room and the place had a huge long table in the middle, with two sides and four main seats, shaped like the letter "U". The room also had an ocean view, just like our suite and everything was arranged perfectly. We were the only ones there because Samuel always had to be the first person to arrive anywhere.

With him around, I knew I was never going to be late again anywhere, ever.

Samuel took the second main seat at the end of the table, then he waved his hand and the next chair pulled itself out for me.

“Show off,” I scoffed as I went there and sat next to him. A few moments after, we heard a knock on the door. 

“Come in!” Samuel said out loud.

John came in, with a straight face, not surprised at all we were there twenty minutes earlier. 

“Good afternoon, Mr. Samuel, I brought some cups of coffee, as you requested.”

“Thank you. Leave them on the side table please. Do I have sugar and milk?”

“Yes, sweetener included for you, sir, “ John said, smiling at him. “If you need anything else, send me a text.”

Samuel nodded at him, and the butler left, leaving us alone again. As Samuel turned his face to me, I could see a tiny smile, somehow. I think he was the first and only person I had seen to be able to smile like that, if it was even a smile.

“I just remembered how natural you acted when Steve said you’re the manager. I loved that, you made it so much easier for me," he told me out of the blue.

“I acted according to my feelings. I always do that,” I said.

“That’s one of the things I admire about you, you’re everything I am not. Be careful, though, some people should never know what or how you feel.”

“I know,” I approved, smiling back at him. “I was always able to somehow sense if someone has bad intentions."

“Hn. That's interesting,” Samuel replied as he checked the time. “They should be here any minute. Michael, promise me you’ll stay calm and act rationally,” he advised me as he touched my shoulder gently. “You’re my backup and we are a team. So, because of that, I will send you signals using my techniques. When you should say something, you will feel a slight buzz in your right ear. If you must keep your mouth shut, you will feel it in your left ear. Got it?”

I nodded, but I was still confused. “You still don’t trust me, do you?” I inquired.

“Believe me I do now, but these people care a lot about what you say and you are a straightforward speaker. That can come in handy sometimes, but… this time, it might trigger something we don’t want.”

Of course no one wanted to hear about neutering people through vaccines, right?

“Okay, got it. What if you don’t give me any signals?” I asked, curious.

“You can say anything as long as you do not interrupt someone, insult them or give them more information than you should. Remember our conversation back at Agra Corp.?”

“Yeah…” I said, actually remembering that moment when he sent Steve after his non existent umbrella.

“Perfect, just be yourself. Follow my lead if something confuses you and everything should be fine.”

“What if you give me a signal to say something and I don’t know what to say?” I asked again.

He sighed and blinked slowly while still keeping that smile on his face even after opening his eyes. He was doing that slow blinking more often that anyone I had seen. He was an alien, though, so there was nothing ordinary about him.

“I’ll help you. Just... don’t freak out. You’re not a teenager anymore.”

“I know…” I said faintly. Then, I felt that sharp pain in my head again, somehow triggered after he said "teenager". Everything became blurry all of a sudden as I saw another flashback.

_“What do you want from me? I never had any friends and everyone in this school hates me, why are you so kind to me?” he yelled at me._

_I just came closer._

_“Back off Nathan, I don't want anything from you..."_

“Michael?” I heard Samuel’s voice in my ear as I came back to reality. I still could not move and my face felt frozen.

Samuel gently slapped my cheek.

“Huh! What?! What was that for?” I snapped.

He sighed, with a concerned look on his face. “Were you having those flashbacks again?”

“Yeah… it’s so weird…they only happen now. I’ve never seen these things before... they’re about you, but I’m not even sure, everything I see is blurry… maybe those alien freaks who kidnapped me did something weird to my brain when they tried to erase my memories…”

Samuel gasped.

“What?” I asked.

“What if-”

Then a knock at the door interrupted him. He sighed. “Come in!” 

I sent him a worried glare, as I had no idea what he was about to say.

The door opened and the first person I saw had his nose and mouth covered by a black mask. His hair was grey but he didn’t look old at all. Samuel seemed to know him because he got up from his seat and headed in the guy’s direction. I didn’t know what to do so I followed him. 

“Is everyone here?” Samuel asked the guy.

“Yes.”

“Thanks, Kassius.”

What a weird name, I thought.

Kassius waved his hand at the door, showing everyone waiting outside that they could come in. A guy with red hair and striking green eyes came in first, followed by a blonde woman with a frowned face and a guy that wasn’t dressed up properly at all.

They shook hands with Samuel and then another blonde girl came in, followed by a guy with brown hair in a short ponytail. The girl looked overly confident and decency was clearly not her favorite style, as it seemed. Her skirt was kinda too short. They were followed by a guy with short black hair and very thick black eyebrows, a chubby guy with brown hair, another weird guy wearing actual round sunglasses inside a room, and a guy that looked pretty old, dressed very formally.

“Mr. Aiden, so glad you made it,” Samuel formally told the old guy when they shook hands.

“Pleased to be here, once again," he said. His voice was really hoarse, I could bet he was a smoker. "I am also pleased to see you found your missing piece of the puzzle."

Hearing him say that caught my full attention. Samuel was looking at him confused.

"I'm talking about Na-uh, Michael, your partner. You kept saying you need a partner in business," the old man laughed nervously.

"Right," Samuel muttered, smiling back awkwardly as he sent me a confused glare. I shrugged at him in response.

It was weird that the old man almost wanted to pronounce my other name. 

Another two guys suddenly came in and they looked really strange. My thoughts were instantly interrupted by a bad vibe coming from them.

One of them looked really feminine, he had long black hair in a ponytail and long, hazel eyes, just like a cat or a snake. The other guy with him, had grey hair and was wearing round Harry Potter-like glasses. Samuel narrowed his eyes at them too. After they shook hands, I went next to him.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

“I just don’t remember inviting them, I don’t know who they are. Let’s just sit down, we’ll find out.”

Everyone including me and Samuel took a seat at the table. Samuel and I on the main front seats next to Kassius and Mr. Aiden and on the sides of the table were the guy with the short ponytail and the blonde girl, the red haired guy and his companions, the chubby boy and the other dude with sunglasses, the one with thick eyebrows, then the two shady men Samuel and I noticed.

After everyone made themselves comfortable, Samuel cleared his throat, while keeping both of his arms on the table and his hands in front of his mouth.

“Before we begin, “ Samuel said, “I would like to thank you all for coming. It is really important to my company and myself that you have all shown interest in this project. Any of your ideas are welcome and up for discussion. If you have any questions, you can ask freely.”

The red haired dude raised his hand.

“Yes, Garret,” Samuel approved.

“Explain again, with details, what is this project focused on exactly. I’d like your partner to give me some details. You seem to be… in a rush,” Garret enunciated bluntly.

I became tense when I realized the guy wanted me to speak.

I swallowed dry, trying to find the right words. It really wasn’t a good start, but I felt a weird tingling in my left ear and figured it was Samuel doing it, so I got the hint - I didn’t say a word and sighed through my nose, relieved.

Samuel smiled at Garret. “What makes you think I’m in a rush? I have all the time in the world,” he replied.

“Do you?” Garret asked. “Is this project’s main goal based on truth?”

Samuel narrowed his eyes at him. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it?”

“Then let your partner explain some details, I don’t think it would harm him.”

I saw the shady guy with snake-like hazel eyes smile after Garret spoke, but I wasn't able tell Samuel about it without being noticed.

I suddenly felt a tingling in my right ear. I clenched my teeth before I spoke and politely smiled at Garret.

“Alright. First of all, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. I joined Samuel’s project because I genuinely loved the idea. It would change the world. The face of the economy would change-”

“How can a simple project do that?” Garret insisted, interrupting me. “Michael Unsworth, am I right?”

I nodded in approval. Apparently, he had his facts up to date if he knew my name.

“A simple project can turn into a huge movement, you can’t change the world in a day, of course." I said. "I assume you all believe in the power of patience, don’t you? So, as a company, you can change things little by little in years, by obtaining power over other companies that stand in the way of your goal. How do you obtain power? By making allies,” I explained, trying hard to look unclouded. 

“So, you’re a naive idealist,” the other dude next to Garret scoffed.

“Kameron, be nice,” I heard the blonde girl next to them whisper.

Garret scoffed too. “You’re too vague.”

Everyone suddenly looked at me and I felt like I was about to turn into stone as I became anxious.

Trying to keep calm though, I remembered my purpose there was to support Samuel. Having the patience to explain something to so many people with different opinions, apparently, was a skill a team leader and a supporter should have. I smiled politely and went on:

“Let me explain it to you in a straightforward way, then,” I said as I got up from my seat, looking at Samuel, hoping he won’t think I’m doing something wrong. I felt a tingling in my right ear and I swear a could see a tiny smile in one corner of Samuel's lips.

Gaining a lot of confidence because of that, I backed away from my seat and started walking across the room. “First of all, we are going to change how public areas are used and we will attract only a certain category of people, while discouraging others. By developing business points around public areas such as shopping malls, parks and schools, we will be able to focus on a single type of people and turn them into customers: the smart, active and educated type of people. Only educational, business related and high quality art events will be approved in areas surrounding schools and free-time public areas. That means commercial music will be discouraged, circuses and other shows like that will not be allowed. Promoting things that do not offer the public any knowledge or high quality content will disappear. People will stop spending time outside to lose focus and run away from problems like they do now. On the contrary, they will come to charge themselves with good, useful things and information, surrounded by people who share the same type of views. Uneducated people will not feel welcome anymore and if anyone behaves badly, they will have to answer to strictly applied laws. Any questions until now?”

It felt so odd to talk like I was actually the smart dude in the room, I still think it's funny, what a good actor I could be.

The guy with Harry Potter glasses raised his hand. “What I heard sounds very unrealistic and somehow, childish. Also, hate for people who did not have a chance to educate themselves? Why would anyone want to make people feel left out? Are you that cold hearted? Are you a _fascist_?”

As I was trying to swallow the lump in my throat that almost made me choke, preparing to give a proper answer, I felt a strong tingling in my left ear.

So strong, it made my ear itch.

I was Samuel, who got up from his seat, narrowing his eyes at the weird grey haired guy and his hazel eyed companion, who interfered quickly:

“Excuse my partner’s straightforwardness,” he laughed shortly. “Can you blame him, though? That’s how it is when you’re young, right, Michael? You burn from the core, like a flame in the wind…”

My heart skipped a beat hearing that and I saw Samuel became tense too. The guy could surely give someone the creeps.

His grey haired partner noticed me staring. 

“You haven’t introduced yourselves,” Samuel enunciated.

“Oh, please accept my apologies for that. My name is Oliver Smith and this is my partner, Kaleb Yves. We are scientists dedicated to create revolutionary changes in this world.”

“Hn. I see,” Samuel replied. “How do you want to involve science in my project? What do you have so unique that my company already doesn’t?”

“Oh, nothing, of course, we just want to be part of whatever your amazing company will develop.”

“Everything we need is already developed,” Samuel said full of confidence.

“Is it? Oh,” Oliver replied, acting surprised. “I see…”

Something was fishy about that guy, he acted like he knew more than he should about Samuel’s company. Also, the way he was talking was… slow, and really odd. 

“We do not intend to bother,” Oliver went on, “I just think it’s interesting, you know? This sociological _chess game_ you want to play.”

Kassius narrowed his eyes at the guy as well before he exchanged looks with Samuel. 

“There is no chess game, “ Samuel said. “It is something someone finally has to do, because things are starting to become chaotic again, even after a war took place. There are a lot of countries already doing similar things and the people there are given no choice but to educate themselves or leave. We want a world without any place to go for those kinds of people, so they will choose to blend in.”

“That sounds rough, but you’re not the President,” Kaleb scoffed. “You have no power.”

What he said annoyed me because he verbally attacked Samuel and I really wanted to say something, but Kassius took my chance away:

“Enough!” he exclaimed. “This isn’t high school.”

“Thank you, Kassius,” Samuel said. “What company do you represent, Mr. Oliver?”

“I am my own company,” the hazel eyed guy snickered. 

Samuel scoffed. “I need big companies to support me in this, as my partner said. We need power over other companies and I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do to help. You can stay, though.”

“Oh, I think you’re wrong, Mr. Ulseth. You see, maybe you need my help with the medical and pharmaceutical research your company is involved into…” Oliver enunciated smoothly.

Samuel frowned. “And why would I need help for that?”

“I see, that means you have all the research material you want, then why not more?” Oliver went on.

I felt Samuel getting anxious, somehow. “No need,” he answered.

“Why are we wasting our time with discussions like this?” Mr. Aiden interfered. “Let’s focus on the main subject, please.”

Everyone cleared their throats then went silent at the old man's demand.

Nobody seemed friendly at all, which wasn’t something I expected, to be honest. Mr. Aiden seemed really too old to be involved in business and that guy with the short ponytail seemed to be bored as hell, like someone dragged him there without his will.

“Michael, you were speaking about the project if I remember correctly, before these curious men interrupted you, am I right?” Mr. Aiden asked me.

I was actually surprised he spoke to _me._

“Uh, right,” I nodded. “So… where was I... “ I said, pretending to clear my throat. “As Samuel said, other developed countries have already started doing similar things, trying to beat the current system. I believe the USA can do it too. Our country has power over people, changes happen faster here than in Europe, for example. If people will realize they are feeling better, they’ll go on the same way and keep evolving.”

“What a drag,” the guy with the short ponytail scoffed. “Why not leave the world as it is? You guys have nothing better to do, that’s all. Everybody’s going to die anyway, who cares?”

I instantly cringed. “Excuse me, Mr…uh-”

“Shane,” he completed my sentence. “Shane Narby.”

“Mr. Narby… can I ask why are you here if this is a drag for you?” I asked calmly. I was right about him after all, it was written all over his face.

“She dragged me here,” he said, pointing at the blonde girl next to him.

“What? You said you like this type of business, your family works in real estate!” she objected.

“Yeah, real estate, Jessica, not this, “ Shane sighed.

I snorted. “Mr. Shane, while I can see the discussion itself bores you, I can still sense you’re a kind man and you care about others. That means you agree with me,” I said.

Samuel gave me a surprised look. 

“How can you tell?” Shane asked me.

“I just feel it. Let me explain… imagine if the world was perfect. Just imagine. People have equal chances, corruption does not exist, money is earned accordingly to how much one works… a world of equity.”

I heard a snort coming from Garret. “Can I say something?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said.

“Our planet is dying, Mr. Unsworth, everything is polluted and you’re all here worrying about social development and the fate of the human race according to how we treat one another. Mother Earth will wipe us all, educated or not. We should already search for another planet to run off to, instead of wasting our time like this.”

I saw Mr. Aiden and Samuel rolling their eyes as they sighed. Everyone else went silent, again.

Garret was right, though. Samuel had high hopes for Earth and maybe he had some tricks up his sleeve to save the planet, but could he say something? He needed to keep his mouth shut about who and what he actually was, and... about his extreme plans which I didn't agree with, though.

My palms started sweating because I didn’t know what to say next, but Kassius saved my ass again:

“And whose fault is that? Ours. Humans destroyed this planet and we need to restore its natural peace. We had the resources, we had ideas all these years since the 1990’s, but corrupted people came and destroyed everything, piece by piece. They even started another war. A lot of action had stopped from being taken and after the war people fell into depression. We need to lift ourselves up and start changing, as Michael explained. The world will not end as long as we’re here. Right, Mr. Aiden?”

The old guy nodded with a smile. 

“Yeah. That would be nice,” Shane sighed.

“That’s the spirit!” I exclaimed after I heard Shane. "Now you get what I wanted to say. Thank you, Kassius."

Samuel sketched a soft yet confident smile. “Anyone that didn’t understand our main goal? That is, finally, to contribute to the benefit of the world, starting on a social scale. Why? Because real estate business damaged society more than anything else. This business promoted events that lead to encouraging people to stay dumb and uninformed. Just take CC Town as a recent example. They built an entire “Town” for people who just come to the shopping mall, dragging their kids with them, taking selfies all day long, having no concern about real problems this world is facing, pollution being one of them. How can people focus on fixing the world's problems if they're encouraged to stay uninformed and ignorant? They can't.”

Everybody nodded in approval except Oliver, Kaleb and Garret who rolled their eyes.

“Yeah, we must do something!” the guy with thick eyebrows exclaimed. 

“We must stop pharmaceutical companies,” the chubby guy said out of nowhere. “They are killing us! Remember how our grandparents suffered because of that pandemic when they were young? It was a hoax!” 

Everybody gave him a quick glare then they looked back at Samuel, who frowned. “That’s the type of bullshit I usually don’t tolerate. What does that have to do with what we are talking about?”

“Give us one reason why it’s not true, what he said,” Garret muttered. “It’s 2081, a war almost killed our best people and then after that everyone went dumb after they healed from the injuries… it’s Big Pharma, you know that, Mr. Ulseth, you come from a highly respected family who works in-”

"People were always dumb, don't you dare blame science and medicine for that," Samuel hissed at Garret, interrupting him. "We'd be nothing without science."

Oliver sketched a satisfied smile after hearing what Samuel said.

“Excuse my brother,” the blonde girl next to Garret said. “My name is Tania. Garret was very affected by what happened in the war, our parents were shot…”

“I’m touched, “ Samuel scoffed ironically. “Mine were killed too, in front of my own eyes. Mutilated, to be precise.”

“Oh my god, he’s _that kid,_ ” I heard Jessica whisper as if what happened to Samuel appeared in the news or something, but I couldn't remember anything.

I frowned, starting to feel bad.

Right before the war took place, my parents took me to an island near Canada, one of the few safe places left available in 2067. We only came back when I was twelve, in 2073, when everything started being rebuilt. I instantly remembered about Viky too, who had already five years in prison at the time this meeting was taking place.

She killed a man, that was all I knew and the police never let me speak to her.

I suddenly realized I went too deep into my thoughts again and because I was afraid I’d have another flashback or something weird, I blinked five times and came back to reality.

I was shocked to suddenly hear everyone speaking at once. They all took a break while I was out in my thoughts.

Samuel sighed as he gave me a glare and closed his eyes, opening them only after a few seconds. “Please pay attention,” he told me.

“I’m sorry. Did I miss something?” I asked, confused.

He nodded. “Yeah. Garret went nuts. He stormed outside, he couldn’t take the fact that he’s a sensitive hippie.”

“What the hell is wrong with the guy anyway?” I asked.

“You heard Tania. Nothing special from my point of view. I’ve been through hell and you don’t see me whining all over the place about how affected I am by my past,” he scoffed.

The room was so full of noise I could barely hear Samuel.

Suddenly, Mr. Aiden slammed the table, making a loud thud. Everyone went completely silent.

“Break’s over,” the old man muttered. “Let’s get back to business.”

“Yeah,” Kassius sighed. “It’s high time we came to some final decisions. I have the documents prepared in my PC that need to be signed by whoever wants to be a part of our project. Basically, a contract.”

“Nobody sign anything!!” Garret sneered as he entered the meeting room again.

His eyes were wide open and his face pale as paper. “You will kill the planet… all of you… please don’t kill my mother…”

Everyone cringed.

Samuel was the only one I saw to become angry, not touched at all by Garret's emotions.

He clenched his teeth, I could see that clearly because his mouth was half open as he was about to say something. He suddenly stood up, slamming both of his hands on the table. “That’s enough! I thought we were done with bullshit, Garret, I thought I made myself clear. If you still want to be here, take a damn seat and shut up.”

I widened my eyes at Samuel, seeing him so fired up. Garret gave him a cold stare and took a seat. 

“Alright. We’re not teenagers. You can all stay focused and pay attention while someone is speaking now, can you?” Mr. Aiden sighed. 

Nobody objected.

“Good”, the old man went on. “I want to explain for the last time why I want to sponsor this project. I ain’t no damn president as Mr. Kaleb told Samuel, but I can make myself heard and everyone here can do the same. This young man here, Nathan, said we need to make allies in order to be respected and recognized by people and he is right! All our goals are fair and well intended. All understood?”

Nobody said anything, but Samuel widened his eyes after hearing Mr. Aiden referring to me as Nathan instead of Michael.

I was shocked, too. How could he know? I wanted to tell Samuel so badly, but it would have been rude. I kept looking at him, hoping he'd notice, but he didn't. He kept his eyes focused on Mr. Aiden.

“If your goals are not like ours,” the old man went on as he looked at Oliver, “you can leave right now.”

Nobody moved, though.

“Fine," Mr. Aiden sighed. "Then you’re all to be trusted, right? I hope I’m not making a mistake by saying this. I’d like to ask who owns public properties in here.”

“Me!” the guy with thick eyebrows exclaimed with a smile. “I would love to be involved, I own all the dance clubs and all the sports clubs are owned by members of my family. My name is Lewis M’Connor.” 

“Me too, “ the chubby guy sighed. “You convinced me. My name is Chad Allis and my family owns the biggest chain of shopping malls and fast foods in West America.”

Mr. Aiden smiled, satisfied.

The other guy with sunglasses cleared his throat as he was also about to speak. “My name is Shinon Abraham and I would also like to join this project. My family owns all the parks in the United States.”

Everyone gasped. I was wondering too, how could a family own all the parks and why… but he guessed we would all ask ourselves that, so he explained: “We bought them all in order to protect them. Nature is very important to my family, especially insects, they have a crucial role in the ecosystem. I’m not selling anything, I would like a simple partnership.”

Mr. Aiden nodded in approval. He seemed to trust the guy. “Okay then. Mr. Chad and Mr. Lewis, tell me a price for what you two own.”

“Where would our profit be, then?” Chad asked.

Samuel scoffed, disgusted by the question.

“You can still be the ones who benefit from the profit, it’s called franchise. I own those places only on paper.”

“Oh! I understand now,” Chad said relieved.

He didn’t seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

Samuel turned to Lewis. “What about you?” he asked him. “Do you agree to do the same?”

“As long as I don’t have to change anything, because I’ve put so much work for my customers…” Lewis sighed.

“You’ll just have to stop using commercial music,” Samuel explained. “Would you do that?”

“I…” He stopped for a few seconds. “I guess I could try, starting with one club...”

“No,” Samuel objected. “You either apply this measure to all your clubs or not. I want to believe you’re smarter than I expected.”

“Oh! Of course I am!” Lewis snickered. “The new generation is always smarter than the previous ones! I believe we can make a change!”

“Then be the first one to make that change and people will follow you,” Samuel suggested, with a very convincing attitude.

“Okay! You convinced me, “ the thick eyebrowed guy exclaimed. “Let’s save the world together!”

I sighed at how easily he manipulated Lewis. _"I intend to be the wind and convince people to let themselves be blown in the right direction,"_ I remembered Samuel telling me the day before. It started to show, and I was amazed.

Samuel smiled at me, his expression almost telling me “ _See, how easy that was?”_

I smiled back at him. Because I could not deny the power he had. His ideas could change if someone would convince him of that, in the same way he convinced Lewis. 

That someone was me and I knew it. The problem was, Samuel's not Lewis. 

As I turned to look outside, I was wondering how many weird things I will witness Samuel do from that moment on...


	6. Disclosure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Samuel instantly raised his head and gasped. “No… impossible...” he muttered as his voice was shaking.
> 
> I helped him get up and he rushed outside the restroom, heading back to the meeting room and I followed him. I had no idea why he rushed so much, but I figured it out when we got there.

A sudden knock on the door was followed by John, who came in with a tray full of food and drinks. He placed everything on the table, told everyone to enjoy, and left.

I was very pleased with what I saw on the table. Everyone started eating while discussing random subjects, because the official meeting was over, as the main purpose had been fulfilled.

“We should open free libraries for people,” Shane said, out of nowhere.

“Oh my god, the world has enough of those,” Jessica scoffed.

“I’m sorry Jess, but there are never enough libraries. Especially free ones.” 

“I agree, “ Mr. Aiden said. “I’ll sponsor that too, we need to promote culture and education.”

“Indeed, the only culture most of this planet’s people have is bacteria,” Oliver sassed.

Kaleb was the only one who laughed at his partner’s joke. I began to wonder if they were a couple because I would no be surprised.

“I would like another coffee, Mr. Samuel,” Oliver said. 

Samuel pointed at the side table full of coffee cups, suggesting Oliver to help himself. 

“Right,” Oliver smiled apologetically. “Who else wants coffee?”

“I’d like one too, “ Mr. Aiden said, wanting to stand up.

Oliver gestured his hand at the old man, suggesting to remain on his seat. “No, no, let me. It would be my pleasure,” he said as he went to the table to bring the coffee cups. He placed one cup on the table, in front of Mr. Aiden, smiling at him politely.

Something was fishy about his sudden kindness.

“Thank you, “ Mr. Aiden told him.

Oliver nodded and went back to his seat. I saw Samuel stand up. 

“I’m going to the bathroom, I’ll be back in five minutes,” he told me.

After Samuel left, another butler came in with dessert.

I smiled instantly, I was always a fan of sweets. Finally a treat for me, yum!

The butler started placing a plate full of cake in front of everyone, but when he wanted to put a plate in front of Oliver, I felt something weird going on.

I could not explain it to myself. I thought it was just anxiety because Samuel left me there with all those people, but suddenly, the butler dropped the plate, full of cake, on Oliver’s lap.

I gasped as the weird feeling intensified.

“I’m so sorry, sir!” the butler apologized.

Oliver frowned at him, then released a long sigh. “No problem, I'll just go and clean myself up.”

The butler looked really confused, like he didn’t understand how that accident happened.

I was also thinking the whole thing was strange. I mean, someone who worked in a hotel like that could not be so damn clumsy.

I frowned, as I watched Oliver leave the meeting room. That weird feeling I had, intensified even more. I felt sick all of a sudden, so I had no choice but to stand up and leave the room as well.

I excused myself as I got up from my seat and headed to the door, barely managing to close it after I got out, because I was feeling extremely dizzy. I kept moving forward until the sign for restrooms showed up.

Then suddenly, Samuel's voice echoed through the hallway:

“What the hell are you doing?! Stop!”

I gasped as I began running in the direction where I heard Samuel’s voice coming from- the restrooms.

I knew then for sure that Oliver followed Samuel on purpose.

As I got closer, I slowed down. I wanted to see what was going on first, without being noticed. Peeking inside the bathroom, I saw Samuel and Oliver standing in front of each other.

Samuel had an angry expression on his already flushed face. 

“Come on, Sanneth. I know you’re in there, you just have to remember,” Oliver said as he stretched out his arm towards Samuel, who grunted and instantly backed away.

“What is your damn problem!? _Who_ are you and why are you calling me _Sanneth_?!”

Oliver just smiled. “Ah, that Scott Aiden… look at what he’s done to you... no problem though, the Uhyra blood inside you will wake up and avenge your ancestors. I could help you, but only if you want…no pressure.”

Samuel cringed. “What?! Stay away from me… I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“You found your flame _again_ but you still don’t remember who you are. Interesting, I’m wondering who’s responsible for that. Oh, look, _the flame is here to save its wind_ ,” Oliver went on, looking at the door as he noticed my presence.

I gasped as my body froze.

“How sweet…” Oliver sassed, ignoring me, as he suddenly stretched out his arm again and placed his palm against Samuel's forehead, grabbing it as he pressed his fingers hard into his skin. “Consider this my help, Sanneth, you will come to me anyway, in search for the truth!"

In a matter of seconds, a purple glow surrounded Oliver's hand as Samuel groaned out loud, probably because of pain.

My body instantly moved towards Oliver. “Stop!” I yelled, but the creep disappeared completely before I could punch him. 

"What the hell?! Where the fuck did he go?!" I snapped as I stopped and bumped into Samuel, who leaned against the wall, letting his body slide down until he was curled up on the floor. Shocked by what happened, his eyes were widened and his hands were severely shaking.

“Samuel! What did he do to you?” I asked him, agitated.

He was hyperventilating and I panicked like hell because I didn’t know what to do, I just patted his face.

“Please, say something…” I muttered, worried.

“Someone call 911!!!! Mr. Aiden collapsed on the floor!” Jessica's voice suddenly echoed through the hallway. 

Samuel instantly raised his head and gasped. “No… impossible...” he muttered as his voice was shaking.

I helped him get up and he instantly rushed outside the restroom, heading back to the meeting room and I followed him. I had no idea why he rushed so much, but I figured it out when we got there.

Everyone was standing up, surrounding Mr. Aiden who was lying unconscious, on the floor.

Blood was coming out of his mouth and his eyes were wide open.

The view was terrible, it made me freeze instantly. Samuel grunted as he threw himself on his knees, in front of Mr. Aiden.

“Everyone, back off!” he screamed as he placed his hands on the old man's chest.

Samuel cursed, as he realised he didn’t know what to do.

He tried to use his biotech abilities and the others didn’t seem to have a clue about what he was doing, except Kassius, who sighed, convinced it couldn't be helped. 

_Those bastards,_ I thought, as I noticed Oliver's partner, Kaleb, wasn’t there anymore either.

“Everyone, stay away!” I heard a woman yell from behind.

When I looked at her, I realised she hadn’t been at the meeting. She had short, black hair and dark eyes.

“Miss Stephanie, wait!” John called her.

“I got this, Johnathan, “ she scoffed at him. “I know what Lady Teresa told me. I won't do anything weird. She won't be pleased when she'll hear about this, though...”

Stephanie leaned closer to Samuel, who barely managed to back away. She checked Mr. Aiden’s pulse and released a long, deep sigh.

“He’s dead,” she muttered. 

“Oh my goodness!” Jessica gasped, covering her mouth with her hands before she buried her face in Shane's shirt.

Samuel froze, widening his eyes at the old man's dead body.

It was the second time someone important to him died before his eyes.

I could feel what he felt and it was so intense. My body felt like it was literally burning.

Stephanie got up and went straight to Kassius, whispering something in his ear. I saw him gasp, but he instantly tried to calm himself down, so nobody would notice. 

“Alright," he cleared his throat. "The meeting is over. John, please escort everyone outside."

John nodded in approval and led everyone to the door. They all followed him quietly.

After he closed the door, only Stephanie, Kassius, Samuel and I remained there.

“It was him…” Samuel grunted as he clenched his fists, “he killed Mr. Aiden somehow...”

“I can confirm he was murdered, Kassius,” Stephanie said. “He was poisoned. Who are you talking about, Samuel? Who killed him?”

"Oliver..."

Then, I remembered that moment when Oliver gave Mr. Aiden a cup of coffee.

He must have poisoned it with something from a big ring I remembered he wore. 

“Check this,” I told Stephanie while handing her the cup. "Oliver offered him this cup of coffee twenty minutes ago."

Stephanie took it, and to my surprise, I saw a green light coming from her hand as she kept it above the cup.

Samuel was also shocked to see what she could do.

She suddenly gasped. “That’s… impossible…this poison belongs to… but... Lord Orris is dead! He died along with Seryth Uhyra eighty years ago, after they fought each other on Krul…” she said as she looked at Kassius, who looked away, after his gaze froze from hearing what she said.

I gasped when I heard the word "Krul", remembering that was the place those freaks who kidnapped me wanted to take me to. They also mentioned "Uhyra" as well.

I felt the instant, desperate need for answers.

Samuel suddenly got up from his knees with his face frowned, clenching his fist as he approached Stephanie. “If you do not explain to me what is happening, I will kill you…” he threatened her with a blunt tone. “Who is Seryth Uhyra and Lord Orris? Why do these names sound so familiar to me!? Also... that guy, Oliver, who killed Scott… said I’m an Uhyra... he called me Sanneth, what's the meaning of all this?!”

I was shocked by Samuel's rage.

Kassius sighed. “I guess it’s time to pay Lady Teresa a visit,” he told Stephanie. “Please be patient Samuel, we don’t know what’s happening either. Just calm down and we will get answers soon. I promise.”

Samuel pouted angrily, but I still remained anxious and confused by his sudden change of behavior and everything I heard.

I also knew Kassius was lying, he did know what was happening. 

It could be seen in his eyes and I bet Samuel saw it too. How did he know about lady Teresa?

“I need to extract the poison out of Mr. Aiden’s body in order to create an antidote for us, we might be in danger if we ever face this guy again,” Stephanie enunciated. “Samuel, I will need your help. I know what you can do.”

Samuel nodded, even if he probably still had no idea who that woman was.

They both stretched out one of their arms, pointing them at Mr. Aiden’s body, making it float into the air in order to place it on the table. Stephanie got closer as she pointed her hand at Mr. Aiden’s stomach, then Samuel waved his fingers and made the old man's eyes close.

“Sorry,” Samuel sighed apologetically. “I couldn’t stand looking into his eyes.”

A purple liquid started coming out of the body’s mouth as Stephanie was slowly moving her hand from left to right.

“Your turn,” she said to Samuel, who quickly grabbed an empty glass and placed it near the body’s mouth. 

As he was looking at the purple liquid that was floating into the air, he was constantly moving his hand and the liquid was being somehow guided to gather above the glass in a floating bubble.

When he closed his fist, all the liquid fell straight into the glass. 

“Done,” he muttered.

“Okay, good job. I will take the body and depart to Akai as soon as possible but I have to run some tests first,” Stephanie said. “You will need to come too, as soon as you can. I leave tomorrow.”

“We’ll leave tomorrow as well,” Kassius told her.

“What country is that?” I asked.

“The name sounds familiar to me,” Samuel added.

“It’s not a country,” Stephanie said. “It’s a planet. Your _home planet_ , Samuel.”

Samuel’s eyes widened. "My what?!"

“Don’t worry, if there is something you must know, Lady Teresa will explain it to you as soon as you arrive there. Please let professor Kassius stay with you at this hotel.”

Samuel sighed as he took his phone and typed something. “Done,” he said after a few seconds. ”Your room is at level five, take the access card from John.”

“Thank you,” Kassius said. 

We all headed to the door in silence, got out, then took the elevator.

Samuel and I were the first ones to get out of it. 

“I hope to hear from you soon, “ Stephanie told Samuel. “See you on Akai. _Both_ of you,” she enunciated as the elevator's doors closed.

Samuel’s face remained confused as he watched the elevator go lower.

We stood like that in the hallway for a few minutes.

“There they go… all my plans. They’re stardust. Apparently, something darker is going on…” he said.

He was right.

That would have meant that my mission would be a success, but I was never one to give up on something out of the blue.

Samuel needed to be convinced his plans were wrong. So I had to stay.

What worried me though, was the fact that Stephanie said we _both_ needed to go on Akai.

Me, leaving Earth.

I was glad and my emotions all over the place, but didn't understand why would she want _me_ to go as well.

All that excitement was surrounded by a dark feeling...

... and who the hell was Lady Teresa?

* * *


	7. The Last Sunset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Destiny had big plans for me and Samuel and I wish we were prepared for that, but instead, the truth had been kept away from us for years.
> 
> Actually, since we were born.
> 
> A truth that lied dormant for eons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: suicide, self harming.

_Note: if you're not against M/M and you'd like them more than friends, click here to read the other version (Warning: smut. Can be a bit unpolished and contain some mistakes):[[link]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21663607/chapters/52688512)_

After we got in our suite again, Samuel seemed to be really depressed. I wanted to cheer him up but I didn’t know what to say to him.

I just placed my hand on his shoulder and sighed. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” he muttered, “but there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to make me feel better. Everything that happened, was just… too much at once and I didn’t understand a thing about Lord Orris and all that. Also, my teacher seems to know more about this shit than I do, which bothers me. He was beside me since I was a toddler.”

“Oh, so Kassius is that teacher you traveled with?” I inquired.

“Yeah. “

Everything started to make more sense in my head.

The day ended for us anyway, but I still hoped I could do something to make him feel better, I didn’t want it to end like that, it was only 7 P.M. I looked outside the window and it was still raining, but the clouds were starting to scatter and I could see the sun. 

“Hey, Samuel.”

“Hn?”

“Let’s go outside.” I suggested.

“It’s raining,” he scoffed.

“It will stop in a few minutes, “ I said as I came closer to him. “Come on, some fresh air will make us feel better. We could run a little bit on the beach. It’s good therapy.”

He rolled his eyes, but didn’t object.

***

“Damn it, let’s go back, this rain is still heavy,” he complained, putting his arms above his head.

“Nooo, we can go for a run. Come on, don’t be a coward!”

_**(c) Snow124** _

He raised one eyebrow. “Oh, really?

“Yeah, look! The sky’s clearing up!” I exclaimed. 

“Sunsets make me feel sad,” he told me. 

“It might be our last, maybe there’s no Sun where we’ll depart to,” I tried to convince him.

He sighed and let down his hands, giving me one of them. Just like that, we took our shoes off and started running by the ocean, like little kids. I was continuously smiling at Samuel, trying to make him feel better and I noticed he wasn’t so sad anymore. After ten minutes, I got tired and we both slowed down.

Samuel finally smiled at me.

“Okay, it’s settled. Each time you’re sad, we’re going to do this. I’m gonna take you for a run in the rain,” I told him.

He scoffed in response. “Good luck with that.” 

“Don’t mock me!” I said, laughing, while pushing him a little bit towards the water. 

He pushed me back.

“Oh, so you’re provoking me, now that you feel better, huh?” I snickered as I took his hand, pulled him towards me then suddenly pushed him so hard he fell on his butt in the water and a wave hit him.

I couldn’t see him for two seconds. “Oh my God!” I squealed, putting both of my hands over my mouth.

When Samuel got out of the water, his face looked so pissed I swore he would come and kill me. 

“Shit,” I muttered, looking at him coming my way. 

I didn’t know if I should start running, or apologize and hope he won’t throw me in the middle of the ocean.

His face was red, covered by his bangs, water droplets falling from it. “You,” he hissed at me, as a frown crossed his forehead.

I started running.

"Come back, Nathan!!"

I gasped when I heard that and stopped running as I turned my head to look at him, confused.

“What…?” I asked. “Why did you call me like that?”

 _Yeah. Welcome back, anxiety. Long time no see._

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just did… you said you hate the name Michael, so... yeah," he replied, seeming as confused as I was, somehow.

I felt that sharp pain in my head again.

I knew it was coming. 

Another strange memory of me and him.

Because I knew I was already anxious, I sighed heavily, prepared to see another flashback…

Everything turned black, and then...

_“I love the sea so much,” he told me. “It’s so amazing I can barely find the right words to describe it to you. I could live next to the sea forever. When I look at it, not only does it make me feel alive, but also makes me feel dead inside…”_

_I looked at him, confused. “That doesn’t make any sense.”_

_“Hn,” he scoffed. “You see, the sea is like a permanent future mother. She holds a whole world inside of her and that world never gets out. It sticks with her. Compared to the sea, we are nothing. We are empty, that is why we need someone else to fill our emptiness. We come to the sea because she inspires us, her waves are like the touch and the songs our mothers used to calm us down with. We come to the sea because she would take us with open arms and make us part of her. This might be the reason some people are afraid of the sea, she can be scary sometimes…”_

When I opened my eyes, the sun was almost gone and I started feeling cold, while still felt the need to understand why was I seeing those flashbacks, because I didn’t know if they were real or not.

I sighed. “Let’s go back, it’s getting dark soon.”

“Yeah,” Samuel muttered.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He looked at the ocean. “The sun is almost gone. I told you sunsets make me sad.”

“Why?”

“I have no idea. I just know that it’s the same feeling as if I'd lose you right now. All the warmth goes away.”

I looked at him, but he avoided meeting my eyes. Why would he feel that bad about losing... me? 

“The sun always comes back in the morning,” I told him calmly, unclouded. “Also, it will still be up for one more hour or even more if the sky remains clear. Oh, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm here, with you. I'll always be.”

I thought that I was lying, but... now I know I never did. 

“Michael?”

“Huh?” I gasped awkwardly, realising I had been spacing out. “Sorry,” I snickered, acting naturally.

He sighed again, but I could also see a tiny smile on his face.

When we got back to the hotel, John wasn’t at the reception desk, which I thought was weird, but Samuel didn’t say anything about it. 

“I need to take a shower,” Samuel told me as we got back in our suite.

“Okay. I’ll go grab a snack.”

Samuel went to the bathroom and I went to the kitchen. Took a chocolate bar from the fridge and before I could finally relax and take a bite from it, a loud breaking sound came from the bathroom.

I dropped the chocolate bar on the floor and ran to the bathroom door in a flash. “Samuel? Are you okay? I heard a lot of noise.”

No answer came back. When I tried the door, it was locked.

I instantly panicked. What if Samuel fell and hit his head or something? Without any second thoughts, I smashed the door open. Even I was shocked how weak that door was. _Or maybe I was too strong for my own good and wasn't aware of it…_

“Samuel!” I yelled, seeing the mirror scattered all over the place and Samuel curled up on the floor with a piece of mirror glass in his left hand. He was holding it above his right hand, close to his wrist. I instantly grabbed it, carelessly, cutting myself.

“Shit,” I slurred as I tossed it away. "What the hell were you trying to do?!"

Samuel didn’t make a sound. When I looked at him closely, his gaze looked like it could see through me. I leaned down at his level.

“Oi! Can you hear me?” I asked, grabbing his chin. “Samuel!”

_**(c) Snow124** _

He still wasn’t responsive. I panicked like hell as I was looking at him, not knowing what to do.

I was scared and all I could do was cry at that moment. I grabbed him and held him, thinking he had wanted to kill himself and he was in a state of shock at that moment.

I thought it was that, because that’s how I felt when I wanted to do it as well. His body felt so lifeless...

“Samuel… please, say something,” I sobbed. “Why would you want to end your life? What’s wrong? Please… don’t leave me…” I went on. "You don't want to lose me, but have you thought about the fact that I don't wanna lose you either? I know we just met and all, but-"

In that moment, I heard him gasp, then he exhaled as if he had been holding his breath all that time. Honestly I felt so relieved when I saw he was alive and okay, because no, I did not want him to die, the warmth I felt around him that reminded me of family and home was still there from the moment I saw him. I realized t

hat wanting to stop his plans didn't mean I despised him or ever wanted something bad to happen to him either.

I felt like I knew him, somehow. That I've always known him... and the fact that he was one step closer to death or that he wanted to be, made me feel guilty.

“Samuel?” I gasped as I quickly grabbed his face between my hands and looked at him after I wiped my tears off my face. His eyes came back to normal, he wasn’t looking through me anymore, but he still looked confused as hell.

“What’s wrong, Michael? What the fuck… why are you crying? What’s going on?” he asked.

I widened my eyes at him and instantly smiled, I couldn’t help myself, seeing that he was okay. 

He looked around, confused. “I wanted to take a shower and then… I fell asleep,” he muttered, frowning. "I guess I'm tired as hell."

“What?! You... _fell asleep_?” I asked, starting to become more confused than he was.

He looked at my bleeding hand, still frowning. “What’s that?”

“I…uh... the mirror fell off and I tried to gather the pieces...” I said. "I, uh... thought you fainted and hit your head, that is why I panicked..." I explained. I didn’t want to tell him about what actually happened because I figured out something was wrong. I remembered when Oliver did something to him before he disappeared. Maybe damaged Samuel's brain somehow when he pressed his filthy fingers against his forehead, and I wanted to make sure nothing bad would happen again. 

I needed to act normal.

"Take your shower and I'll make you a strong coffee," I said before I got out of the bathroom.

"Thanks," Samuel replied. "Can you also call John in ten minutes to gather the broken mirror off the floor? I don't wanna cut my feet in these."

"Sure thing."

Yeah, as if he did not want to cut his wrists minutes ago... the fact that he didn't remember anything scared the shit out of me, too many things that I didn't understand were going on and I was never good at coping with such things.

I was sitting next to the window when Samuel got out of the shower, admiring the last rays of sunshine for that day, as the sun was slowly hiding behind the horizon. 

“Thank you for this amazing evening,” he said behind me as he looked at the sunset as well.

His smile was so smooth you wouldn’t even notice it, but it was there. “Remember I wanted to show you something?" he asked. "Follow me.”

I got up from my seat and followed him as we left our suite. Samuel took out one of his cards, placed it near a door next to ours, opening it.

“No freaking way!” I exclaimed, seeing what was behind that door.

A huge pool.

Of course, the ocean could be seen from there too.

“Are you up for a swim before we go to sleep?”

“Of course,” I said. “Let’s race.”

“You must really like losing, if you suggest that,” he mocked me. “Alright. I’m in.”

We undressed and jumped into the pool, heading to one of its edges, preparing ourselves for the race. 

“We should have warmed up a little before jumping in, “ I told him.

“Tch, I don’t need that,” he scoffed, mocking me again.

“Alright, now you’re provoking me! Get ready… one, two, three… go!”

We both inhaled a generous amount of air as we sunk our heads into the water and pushed ourselves forward against the pool's wall. 

I just focused on my speed and my moves. I didn’t actually think I had the chance to win against him, but I was still giving my best. While I was caught in my own attempt to keep myself focused, I felt another sharp pain in my head. 

I knew another flashback was coming and I tried hard to stop it or at least not let it stop me from swimming. Really, those flashbacks used to bother me in the most important moments.

I went to the surface, inhaled some air again and dived into the water again with my eyes closed.

_**(c) Snow124** _

This time I just saw what I thought was Samuel’s face, but… he looked a little bit different. Older, somehow. His hair was longer. Then I realised what I was seeing was not an ordinary flashback at all.

 _"Seryth, promise me you will not let anything destroy what we have created.”_ I heard a voice say to him.

I gasped and instantly reached for the surface again. Samuel was still swimming, so he didn’t notice anything.

I kept swimming too, until we both reached the edge again. 

“You won, “ I told him.

“Did I?” he asked, confused. “From the vibrations I felt in the water, you were two rounds ahead of me. You don’t have to lie, you won. I don’t mind, I’m actually amazed.”

“What?” I gasped. “What do you mean I was two rounds ahead?”

“You were, Michael. I am fast and smooth, but your strength kicked my ass this time, not only the water," he said as he swam closer to me.

I was shocked to hear all that because I didn’t realise _how_ that happened, especially while I was interrupted by that flashback.

Not at all of what was waiting for me, I smiled anyway. After all, I could have never run away from what was coming.

Destiny had big plans for me and Samuel and I wish we were prepared for that, but instead, the truth had been kept away from us for years.

Actually, since _we were born._

_A truth that lied dormant for eons._


	8. The One Who Laughs Last

_**(c) Snow124** _

**Wednesday, 25 of August 2081, 05.00 a.m.**

_"_ _No!! I’m sorry!” I yelled._

_“Just close your eyes, Nathan.”_

_“But I don’t want to die!! Now I remember! I can remember everything, so I don’t want to die anymore! Use your powers and stop us from falling, please!!”_

_“No… our bond must die along with us.”_

_“Sanneth!!!!!!”_

* * *

I woke up in our suite’s bed, hyperventilating, almost choking. When I looked next to me, Samuel was not there. 

“What the hell… Samuel? Are you here?” I yelled, but no answer came back. “Damn… what a horrible nightmare I just had… you called me Nathan again and I called you Sanneth… what the hell is going on? Samuel?”

Still nothing. I checked the clock and it was 5 A.M. 

It made no sense to me why would Samuel leave the suite and my anxiety started playing tricks on me, telling me he left for good and everything had been a joke. I inhaled and decided to ignore those thoughts, so I took my phone and called him. 

_“The number you have dialed cannot be reached right now, please try again later”,_ the voicemail said. 

“Tch! You’ve got to be kidding me!” I hissed.

I got up from bed and went straight to the bathroom to check if Samuel was in there, being obviously afraid something bad happened again and only the thought of it made me shiver. To be honest, Samuel leaving me was a better scenario in my head than finding him dead or hurting himself again.

When I opened the bathroom door, nobody was there though. The whole suite was empty and all I could see was the moon shining above the ocean and its dim light filling the room.

A long sigh left my lungs as I decided to go to the reception desk, because John must have seen Samuel somewhere.

A haunting silence dominated the whole building as well, and when I arrived at the reception desk, no one was there.

_Maybe they didn’t expect anyone to book a room at that hour?_

As I was looking around, I saw a small elevator behind a wall, in a corner. It wasn’t easy to notice, but I noticed it and headed towards it. 

“Is this functional?” I muttered as I pressed the command button, curious.

The doors suddenly opened. Not sure what I was doing, I stepped in and pressed the only button the cabin’s command board had. The doors closed and the elevator seemed to be going down as I swallowed dry. After two minutes, it stopped.

Yeah, that’s a lot of time for an assumed short distance. The cold air that hit me as I got out almost made me faint. That was a huge difference of temperature between levels, considering the fact that it was summer.

“Hello?” the echo of my voice traveled through the dark hallways which seemed to be made of stone.

When I looked around more carefully, I noticed the floor’s edge was actually a ditch, covered by a metallic grid and light was coming out of it. As I got closer to examine the ditch, seemed like heat was coming out of it too, because it was filled with burning coals. That also explained the light.

I asked myself what the hell was that ancient heating system doing in a place like that and why was the place so cold despite all that. Not getting any sunlight might have been the reason, but I was also wondering how low under the hotel I was.

“May I ask what are you doing here, boy?” a voice echoed as a manly figure stepped out of the shadows. He had long, spiky white hair and looked very muscular.

“Who are you?” I asked him.

The man scoffed. “I’m the one who’s asking questions here, you know? My name is Joshua.”

I widened my eyes at hearing his name as it rang a bell in my mind, but I didn’t understand why. His face was also familiar to me.

“Now tell me kid, what are you doing here? Are you lost?”

“Kid?! I’m in my twenties, you know?” I raised my voice at him.

The man laughed a little as he placed his hand on his forehead. “Oh, my. Time passed quickly in the outside world, it seems. Look, you should go back, this is not a place where you should be. How did you get here anyway?”

“Outside world? What are you blabbering about? I took this elevator, of course!” I explained as I stretched out my arm to point at the wall and show him, but when I looked behind me, I couldn’t see the elevator anymore.

“Whaaaaaat?! Where… where is it?!” I snapped out loud as I turned back around to look at the old man, whose face was also confused as hell.

“Impossible,” he muttered as his face began to frown, "you _saw_ it?"

“Dude… you scare me,” I muttered as I swallowed dry. 

“Just... go back,” he told me bluntly, pointing at the wall behind me.

When I turned around again, the elevator was _visible_ again. I gasped as my whole body froze because of shock and confusion. 

“Fine,'' I said as I headed to the elevator, making him believe I was willing to go back, when I actually turned around all of a sudden and dashed through the hallway, passing by him as quick as I could.

He definitely didn’t expect that.

“Stop!” I heard him yell as I kept running through the hallway as fast as I could. Bumping into a door, I opened it without hesitation, only to find myself entering the biggest library I had ever seen.

As I stepped forward, the door closed itself behind me and I was suddenly wandering through tremendously tall bookshelves. I stopped, as an unexpected “friend” was in there. I turned to stone and tried to hold my breath while Oliver was looking through a book that had the letter “U” engraved on both sides of its cover. Glad that he didn’t notice me, I planned to stay there and spy on him, but then that old man Joshua stormed into the library:

“Boy, are you here?!”

That was the moment I saw Oliver wave his hand in the air and... _disappear_.

Just like he did in the bathroom with Samuel.

As I narrowed my eyes, I realized I could still see where he was, but somehow could only see a purple halo instead of his body.

Joshua popped right in front of Oliver, but didn’t see him because he continued going forward, searching for me. Then, Joshua suddenly came back in the same spot after a few seconds, like he had missed something.

Oliver’s halo moved away quickly and ran towards the door. Not caring about Joshua anymore, I just wanted to stop Oliver so I popped out from where I was hiding and started running after the bastard.

“Hey, come back here!” I yelled. “I can _see_ you, asshole!”

“Kid, stop! It’s dangerous!” I heard Joshua scream behind me.

I didn’t give a damn, though.

My brain had never been more confused as it was back then and all my concerns were about finding out the _truth_.

I didn’t think about it too much, but I was well aware of the fact that I, as a human being, _should not be able to see Oliver’s aura_ ,or whatever the hell that was, should not be able to _swim faster than Samuel_ and definitely should not see weird flashbacks or smash bathroom doors open so easily without any training.

I thought back then that the bastards who kidnapped me were responsible for all the things I could suddenly do or happened to me, that they might have done something to me. I wasn’t entirely wrong, though. That was why they didn’t actually erase my memory.

 _But they weren’t able to do it because of a reason_ and I was getting closer to finding out what that reason was.

Back on the hallways, I was still running and getting closer and closer to Oliver. As soon as that was close enough, I jumped and launched myself at him like a rocket, grabbed his foot and threw him against the closest wall I saw, effortlessly.

He coughed blood because of the impact and I could see his body again. I guessed his cloak, or whatever that was, could not last if someone hit him.

And yeah, something was definitely _not normal_ about me and what I did to him.

“You’re not going anywhere,” I roared at him angrily.

Oliver chuckled. “Wow, you really _are_ amazing after all. Too bad Aymera put you in my way more than I wanted. She basically undid what Saruk had done years ago.”

He stretched out his arm at me, as his hand was surrounded by a purple glow. I knew he wanted to throw a blast at me or something. 

Before I could do anything to defend myself, a white blast hit him instead. 

“Stay away from him, you clown!” Joshua fumed as he approached us. 

“Tch… _Jirath_ ,” Oliver grunted at him. “Long time no see, foolish coward.”

I kept hearing other names instead of the ones I knew and that really made me go nuts. It was like everybody was lying to me.

Also, Joshua had powers and apparently Oliver knew him.

_Why wasn’t I surprised at all?_

“See you next time, “ Oliver spat, his voice suddenly sounding different, croaky, as his face somehow started to change… like his skin was falling off, revealing a different face under the one we saw.

I gasped in disgust, staring at him while just laughed, waving his hand at the wall. The elevator appeared out of nowhere and he jumped in.

The doors closed before I could catch him.

“Damn it!” I yelled infuriated, hitting the elevator’s doors as they became a wall again. “I need to catch that sick bastard. And _you_ … you also have ten seconds to explain why he called you Jirath instead of Joshua,” I hissed at the old man.

“It’s my second name,” he answered shortly, without hesitation.

“Wh-... whatever. That bastard did something to Samuel, I need to go and find Samuel before he does,” I said to Joshua. "So if you can control this shit, do it."

The old man sighed, then nodded at me. “Go,” he said, as he waved his hand and the elevator appeared again. 

I ran towards it without hesitation.

“Be careful, Nathan,” he said. “See you on Akai.”

"What?! Wh-" I gasped as the elevator’s doors closed before I could say anything else. I was left speechless, teeth clenched and eyes wide open.

_"Does this old man know me or something?"_

Back in the hotel lobby, I started panicking as Samuel seemed nowhere to be found. With Oliver on the loose, I started feeling helpless. I didn’t even know where to look for him but then I remembered someone else might know where he was.

“ _Kassius_.” I muttered to myself, as I quickly ran over to the reception desk to open the computer and check which room was Kassius staying in.

It was 525. “Thanks John, for not being here,” I scoffed as I rushed towards the main elevator.

At least the computer didn't have a passcode.

As soon as I reached the fifth level and the doors opened, I was dashing through the hallway to find Kassius’ room. The door was already open.

“What the hell… Kassius? Hello?”

No answer came back and it felt like something bad was going on. I wasn’t able to explain it to myself back then, I just knew Kassius definitely wasn’t there and I still had to find Samuel as soon as possible.

Suddenly, something fell on the floor and broke into pieces. A glass.

“Who’s there?!” I gasped.

No answer came my way and silence still dominated the place, until the furniture in the room started trembling.

“What is this? An earthquake? _Impossible_ …”

I instantly froze.

An earthquake would cause a tsunami in that area and the phenomenon was rare there. So I had no idea how and why was it occurring. 

I kneeled as a panic attack installed itself into my mind and instantly took control of my body as well, making me unable to move.

“Shit… I have to-… do something…” I grunted as the whole room started spinning before my eyes as if I was about to faint, but I struggled to pull myself together.

The pieces of glass scattered on the floor caught my attention and I forced myself to stretch out my hand and take one, then quickly made a small cut inside my palm with it so adrenaline could make me alert again.

Grunting, I squeezed my eyes shut, inhaling deeply as I was trying to calm down.

It was a matter of seconds before anger took control of me, as I remembered that Oliver might had been behind what was happening.

I frowned and clenched my fist, blood dripping through the space between my fingers from the cut inside my palm. 

Dashing through the hallway again, then straight into the elevator, I was ready to go outside of the hotel because something was telling me that’s where I’d find Samuel.

As I got outside, running towards the beach, Kassius suddenly approached me. “Michael! We need to _leave!_ Now!”

I turned around and almost bumped into him. “What the hell is going on?” I asked.

“It’s Samuel… he’s-… he’s out of control! I-...I could not stop him…”

He was hyperventilating.

“Stop him from what, Kassius?! Calm down, you're a damn professor! Where is he now?”

Kassius didn’t say a word anymore, he just pointed at the ocean. 

“What-... what do you mean? Samuel is in the water? Explain!” I yelled, irritated.

“He... threw himself into the water, saying he will embrace the darkness again... that is all he said and I couldn’t see him anymore after that. Michael, the earthquake you must have felt earlier… _Samuel caused it_. His energy went nuts… we need to depart to Akai right now and Teresa will tell us what is really going on and-”

“I’m not leaving Samuel here,” I interrupted him, bluntly.

It suddenly started raining. When I checked the clock, it was already 6 A.M. 

“Michael, please listen to me! Samuel is capable of more than you know!” Kassius yelled.

“Forget it. You were beside Samuel so many years and now you want to leave him alone!? If I were you, I would search for Oliver, because that bastard did this to Samuel and also stole something from Joshua’s secret library and _I’m more than certain you know what and who I am talking about_.” I grunted as I took off my shoes and shirt, prepared to run towards the water.

“You met Joshua?! And... _Oliver was here all the time?!_ ” he gasped.

“Yeah, I’d be more concerned about that, right?! Call anyone you know that could help us. I bet Joshua’s gonna be outside soon,” I said as I finally headed towards the sea, leaving Kassius behind, with the food for thought I “served” him. 

After I jumped into the water, I started swimming as fast as I could, that’s how desperate I felt.

I didn’t even know where to search for Samuel but despite that, I knew I would sense his energy somehow. I began to understand something was happening to me. I knew I could do it.

After a few minutes, I really did. I inhaled deeply and went underwater, convinced I'd find him there. _I could feel he was close to me_ , but I couldn’t see him underwater, although I kept looking in every direction .

Because I needed air, I reached for the surface again. While I was catching my breath, I suddenly felt like an electric shock hit me as I saw Samuel’s silhouette a few meters in front of me... _standing_ on the water.

“Samuel?! What the…”

I was so overwhelmed with panic by seeing him _above_ water instead of swimming in it, that I thought I was hallucinating. I shook my head, rubbed my eyes and I could _still see him_ , so I was definitely not hallucinating. 

“Samuel!!!!” I yelled as I began swimming towards him as fast I could, kicking the water with full force. 

Somehow, the waves were getting bigger and bigger.

It was the first time I was afraid of Samuel’s abilities, especially after what Kassius told me. It was unbelievable that he could cause an earthquake, as smooth as that one was, that was capable of creating a tsunami.

How could that kind of technology, capable of doing such things, could stay hidden from people?

When I reached him, I had no idea what to do, so out of impulsiveness, I grabbed his foot, but I couldn’t make him move at all.

Samuel was looking at the water, but not at me, as both of his hands were close to his body, keeping his fingers apart from each other, in a straight position. His sight was focused on the ground, like he was looking through the water, at the sea floor. That view of him was actually scary, because he looked _possessed._

“Samuel, snap out of it!” I yelled.

“Humans must be… _washed away_ ,” he muttered, calmly, without even blinking.

My heart started beating faster and faster and it was hard for me to even breathe, imagine I also had to keep swimming so I wouldn’t drown. I just knew I had to do something to make Samuel come back to reality. I knew I had it in me somehow, but wasn’t fully aware of it.

Suddenly, Samuel laid his eyes on me and all could see in them was _hatred._ It felt like I was looking at someone else.

That wasn’t the Samuel I knew. 

“You… _are in my way_ ,” he said as our eyes met, before he suddenly stretched out his arm and pointed it above my head. 

I gasped as I widened my eyes at him. “Samuel… what are you-”

Before I could finish my sentence, my eyes felt like they were being stung and instantly felt the need to squeeze them shut.

That’s when I realized... he was actually trying to _hurt_ me. As anger installed itself within me, I reacted instinctively and grabbed Samuel’s foot harder, pulling him underwater with me as I savagely punched him in the stomach, also noticing my moves were faster than they would normally be underwater and that made me question my strength again. After Samuel opened his eyes, he sent me a threatening stare as he kicked the water. He launched himself at me and grabbed my throat as we instantly splashed out of the water at his own will.

Samuel landed on his feet above the surface, with his hands still around my throat, holding me in the air while I was struggling to make him let me go.

He was choking me so hard I couldn’t breathe at all and because I also had been underwater before that, I realized it had been an entire minute since my lungs received oxygen. My heart was beating fast as hell and all I could think of was dying.

But when I processed that more evenly, I felt like my body went on fire, I literally saw the reflection of myself, somehow surrounded by a glowing yellow aura, into Samuel’s dark eyes.

It was like deep within me, I was turning into something more, like my spirit didn’t accept that way of dying.

To make it clear, I understood that Samuel could not kill me and I could never kill him.

 _I_ _t was impossible for us to die by the hands of one another. That’s what I felt to be the undeniable truth._

Calming down a bit and still trying to take a deep breath, despite the fact that Samuel was choking me, I suddenly gasped and opened my eyes wide when I felt my lungs filling up with oxygen.

I didn’t understand how, but somehow _,_ my body was _absorbing_ oxygen from Samuel, through my skin cells and guiding it to my lungs. How could science explain that? I needed it to explain it so badly...

Samuel gasped and frowned as he heard me breathing again. 

“Why aren’t you dead yet?!” he snarled.

“The only way you can kill me… _is if you die as well_. Do you want that, _Sanneth_?!” I asked him, bluntly and somehow clueless about why I called him Sanneth, but the name just came out of my mouth.

He looked at me and I could see it in his eyes… he was lost in his own mind.

And I had to bring him back to reality.

I felt my body becoming stronger and stronger, while Samuel’s seemed to become weaker. As soon as he realised I was _taking away his energy_ , Samuel released me, letting me fall as he backed away a few meters.

Both of us were shocked when I landed on the surface of the water instead of falling deep into it.

“What? Am I… standing above water?! _”_ I gasped as I tried to make a step and convinced myself it was true.

_I was able to walk on water._

_Was I able to do it because Samuel was able to do it?_

That meant somehow, borrowing some of his energy must have given me that ability. I laughed shortly as I looked at my own feet stepping on water. 

My excitement vanished quickly when I heard Samuel grunt as he suddenly started running towards me with the same amount of hatred in his eyes I had seen earlier. I could actually feel his anger in every molecule of air around us and I also knew I had to stop the damage Samuel’s earthquake might have caused, because I could feel the water that was continuously retreating, which in the end would come back in full force - _a tsunami._

“Wind doesn’t need fire to survive, it can survive on its own!” Samuel's voice fumed as he finally approached me, grabbing my arm and throwing me in the air as far as he could. “Now, be gone!” he yelled again in the next second after he threw me in the air, as he stretched out his arms forward and made all the drops of rain in the air nearby instantly freeze and take the shape of sharp needles.

He launched them at me, all at once, while I was still in the air. Scared, I squeezed my eyes shut as I landed on my feet and took a defensive position, placing my arms crossed above my head. I expected my body to be stung all over the place by all those ice needles Samuel launched at me, but when I opened my eyes, they were all floating in the air, surrounding me. 

_“Am I… doing this? Did I stop them?”_ I gasped as I realized I was protected by an invisible shield _I created_ , which I could sense, despite not seeing it.

I began to feel more confident but I didn’t know how much it would last or what exactly I could do, so I began thinking about a way of escaping, the quickest one possible, but nothing came into my mind, until I felt an instant urge to attack Samuel back.

Because I knew none of my attacks would actually kill him, I didn’t hesitate- as I was still standing with my arms crossed in front of my head, I suddenly stretched them out in the air, like people usually do when they praise a god. The move just came to me naturally, it didn’t feel like I was using my mind too much, or maybe it was the huge difference between what I could do in those moments compared to the nothing I could do before.

Yeah, it was definitely that.

After I made that move, all the ice needles suddenly flew back Samuel’s way with an incredible speed.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. It felt like I could control nature or something. Of course Samuel didn’t fall for that attack because with only one move of his hand, the ice needles melted and fell down as rain, mixing with the ocean.

“You’re no match for me, Uzkaeri.”

“Tch, why do I keep hearing names I know nothing about?!” I grunted. “Samuel, please stop this! I don’t want to fight you!”

I even tried to get closer to him, making a few steps forward. “Samuel, please. Come back. I know you can hear m-”

“I don’t know who this _Samuel_ is, but it's like you’re talking to a ghost and it makes you look dumb,” he told me with a very cold, calm tone- the same tone he used on a daily basis but in that moment his words were hurting me in ways I never thought I’d be hurt by something.

My body started feeling heavy as my mind was getting weaker because of the bitterness filling my heart.

Samuel instantly noticed that and, taking advantage of the moment, he quickly came closer to me, until we were just a few centimeters away from each other, but he didn't attack me.

The hate in his eyes was still there. 

I made another step forward, to test Samuel’s reaction.

 _He didn’t even move a finger_ \- that’s how confident he was and that’s how absent his mind was. 

“Do you really want to kill me?” I asked him straightforwardly. 

“What do you think?” he asked me back, smiling in a way I never thought I’d see him smile. 

Suddenly, his body was surrounded by a faint, blue aura.

I took a deep breath as I looked into his eyes without blinking.

“Do it, then. But you won’t be the one who laughs last,” I said to him, convinced those were my last words.

  
  
  



	9. Outta Time

I took a deep breath as I looked into his eyes without blinking. “Do it, then. But you won’t be the one who laughs last,” I said to him, convinced those were my last words. 

As I was left standing there, with my feet barely touching the soft waves, staring at Samuel as time seemed to suddenly slow down around us, I felt my pulse quicken beneath my skin and saw Samuel’s pupils dilating as the raindrops stopped falling and remained floating in the air.

It wasn’t an illusion, Samuel was doing it. The waves also seemed to have stopped moving.

It should have been already 7 A.M. but the sun couldn’t be seen because of the clouds.

 _"Sunsets make me sad”,_ Samuel's voice from the day before echoed in my mind. It made no sense to me why, though.

I was quickly brought back to reality when the ocean floor could suddenly be seen through the water underneath my feet.

I knew then- it was happening.

The big wave was on its way to the shore and Samuel was aware of that, that’s why he must have 'slowed down time'- to be able to kill me before that would happen, so I won’t be able to stop it.

I was still confused though, because I didn’t understand how Samuel would consider me a threat against the tsunami, I had no power.

Maybe it was because I “borrowed” his energy and became able to use it like my own? Could that be considered power? It just made no sense to me nevertheless, for in my mind I was still Michael Unsworth, a simple human.

Although, what Samuel was doing was already beyond what science could explain. I mean, time could not be _actually_ slowed down.

If it could, it would accelerate what comes next after you press the “pause button” again, right?

At that moment though, I just had to accept that maybe… science could not explain everything, especially when it came to that, and... Oliver. I had no idea what that guy was capable of and still couldn’t figure out how he controlled someone's mind like that. 

Willing to let Samuel hurt me and see what would happen, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I prepared myself to hear him yelling my name before attempting to kill me. It sounded very...

 _“Nakaeron!”_ he yelled his lungs out.

Opening my eyes wide when I heard the name he yelled instead of Michael, I changed my mind about letting myself get hurt and instinctively grabbed the wrist of his hand that was reaching for my chest and stopped it.

He would have _definitely killed me_ with that energy blade surrounding his palm. But I finally understood that... I _was_ strong enough to stop him, after all.

“Tch, you were just testing me, weren’t you?!” Samuel hissed at me, annoyed. 

Maybe I was testing him without being aware of it.

Honestly, I never thought he would _actually_ want to kill me, but there we were...

“Are you stalling me?” he snarled again, still ill-tempered. “Your precious star won’t help you this time, with all this darkness surrounding us… so, stand still and let me cut you in half!”

I gasped as it all finally made sense in my head.

“ _Precious star, huh?”_ I thought as I remembered how Samuel acted weird in the evening before, right after acknowledging the sun was about to set - he said it made him feel sad and he wanted to hurt himself when we arrived at the hotel. Right after that, he became weaker and I won against him in that swimming competition only to find myself alone in bed at night because he went on a rampage to the ocean.

In conclusion, sadness was his weakness and Oliver knew that, so basically what Oliver planted into Samuel’s mind was being triggered by... sadness.

I began to understand the mechanism a little, so the sun had come out of the clouds somehow, if I wanted to test my theory. 

_“Okay, but how do I do that? If he slowed down time, would I be able to scatter the clouds as fast as I need to? Or maybe I should figure out how to make him stop slowing down time… if he does this with his abilities, then it must require focus and energy… ”_ I thought.

As I made a step forward, I realized my moves were not slowed down at all and neither were his. Confusion quickly settled into my mind as it made no sense how would someone slow down time and not be affected by it- or even weirder, I seemed to not be affected as well.

The premise of my theory was wrong.

_“Wait, he didn’t slow down time... he’s just playing with what’s around us… trying to delay the wave, I guess? Amazing.... he can hold this massive amount of water… this must require a lot of focus…”_

I regained confidence in my theory despite its premise being changed, as there was still only one thing left for me to do- win against him at playing with nature. 

“Don’t be so sure my 'precious star' won’t come in handy when that’s its sole purpose,” I snickered at him.

“What purpose is that?” he asked, frowning.

“To bring light and warmth!” I enunciated fiercely as I stretched out both of my arms forward, pointing them where I calculated the sun would be at that time- close to the horizon, of course, because it must have had risen already. A few seconds later, I was left amazed by the clouds that started scattering before my eyes, at my command, revealing the sun in all its glory.

“You!” I heard Samuel roar from behind me. 

When I turned around, to my surprise, his eyes were closed. 

Samuel stretched out his left arm, pointing it at the sky and suddenly all the scattered clouds were brought together above me as lightning was continuously flashing through them.

Despite the fact that I brought out the sun, Samuel still managed to avoid looking at it and I was still outmatched from what it looked like.

I gasped as I looked up. “Impossible…” 

“Farewell, Nakaeron!” Samuel shouted as the sky suddenly lit up before my eyes.

“ _Nathan!!!!_ ” I heard Joshua calling my name the second I fell into the water, struck by lightning.

_“Samuel… open your eyes,”_ my thoughts echoed inside my mind as my body was slowly sinking.

I wasn’t even sure if my theory had been right. Also, confused about why he called me Nakaeron, as if he was talking to someone else, not to me… as if _he_ was talking like _he was_ someone else.

A few seconds later, everything went black.

_"He will embrace the darkness again..."_

* * *

_**(c) Snow124** _

__

_“Will I see you soon, Seryth?”_

_“Hn, probably. If it’s me that Orris wants, I’ll give him all I’ve got.”_

_“Please come back alive. Our wedding is in a few days.”_

_“I will.”_

_“Do you promise?”_

_“I already promised myself to you, Nikaellan.”_

_“Good. That means you have to stay alive.“_

* * *

I opened my eyes instantly, after having that weird dream, only to see Samuel sinking near me as if he had been blasted into the water.

My body wanted to freeze, but my lungs needed air so I rushed to the surface to inhale a good amount of it, then instantly dived back in. Samuel was laying on the seafloor, deeper than I expected. The pressure was so high I started feeling pain in my ears as I tried to reach him. After grabbing his arm, I quickly swam upwards to the surface again.

“There he is!” I heard a familiar voice.

It was Stephanie. 

“Michael! Over here, quick!” I also heard Joshua shouting at me.

They were on the beach. I swam towards them while holding Samuel tightly in my arms. His weight was dragging me down, but I kept kicking the water with my feet until I reached the shore, with his body still in my arms, facing me. I looked at his now calm expression, wondering who stopped him.

“Okay, Jirath, now that they’re out, let’s do this, we’re outta time!” Stephanie demanded.

She called him _Jirath..._

Asking myself what they were doing, I turned around to look at the ocean and I freaked out so much when I saw the huge wave heading towards us that I fell on my knees, almost dropping Samuel on the ground.

I knew something was odd when I was still in the water, because I barely reached the shore, as if the ocean was pulling me back, but I was too focused on taking Samuel back to think about the wave.

I got up and backed away a few meters, still holding him in my arms as Joshua and Stephanie stretched out both of their arms in front of them.

“Did it cover the whole area, have you checked?” Stephanie asked Joshua.

“Yes, just keep it at full force!” the old man shouted.

At that moment, instead of washing us all away, the wave hit against an invisible energy barrier that Stephanie and Joshua _created_ , making them both yell out loud as they were struggling to resist against the force of nature.

Any mistake in their focus would have ended up in a disaster. 

“Michael, take Samuel and go inside!” Stephanie demanded while still keeping resistance against the furious sea. 

Curious by nature, I would have stayed to see how it ended but having Samuel unconscious in my arms made me do as she said. I ran back to the hotel and instantly tucked him into bed as soon as I arrived in our suite. 

I sighed in relief and went to grab something to eat.

When I got back in the bedroom, Kassius was by the bed, looking at Samuel with a serious expression.

After two seconds, he laid his eyes on me, frowning. “Michael, if you know something, I think it’s high time you told us. Samuel never acted this way.”

I sighed. “I think Oliver did something to him yesterday, right before Mr. Aiden collapsed.”

“What do you mean Oliver did something to him?”

“You know Samuel went to the bathroom. Right after that, the waiter strangely dropped a plate of cake on Oliver’s lap.”

“Yeah, then Oliver excused himself saying he’s going to clean himself up…” Kassius completed my sentence.

“Well, coincidence. He actually went after Samuel,” I said. “I knew that because I started feeling sick all of a sudden as I felt something bad was about to happen, I don’t know how to explain…”

Kassius kept looking at me, analyzing me. “We’ll get to that later,” he told me. “Now go on.”

“Right. When I left the meeting room and followed Oliver, I found him and Samuel in the bathroom, on the verge of fighting. Oliver kept saying things like Mr. Aiden lied, referred to Samuel as Sanneth, saying that he actually despises humans and one day he will want to avenge his ancestors, and- “

Kassius gasped. “This is really bad. This means Oliver might really be-”

“Lord Orris?” I interrupted him. “The one Stephanie mentioned? Yeah, he might be alive, he might have killed both Seryth and Nikaellan and made it look like he died along with Seryth, when in fact, Nikaellan found out about Seryth’s death and went after Orris in a flash, “ I said. “Seryth and Nikaellan were already engaged when that happened.”

Kassius widened his eyes at me, maybe wondering how did I know those things.

”But we’ll get to that later, right, Kassius?” I asked him with a mocking, yet serious tone, noticing his confusion.

He hesitated answering for a few seconds. “Uh… right.”

“So, back at the meeting, Oliver, or Lord Orris, however the hell you want to call the bastard, placed his hand on Samuel’s forehead as a purple glow surrounded his palm. I don’t know what that was, but it made Samuel groan in pain and his weird behavior started right after the sun had set,” I explained.

“The sun? What does the sun have to do with Samuel?” Kassius asked, confused.

“Nothing, in particular. But what's also weird is that tonight was a full Moon. And you know what has to do with Samuel? Sadness. I think Oliver damaged him psychologically. The damage needed to be triggered by something that makes Samuel sad, which was Mr. Aiden’s death right after Oliver disappeared. That’s when this psychological tumor or whatever it is that Oliver implanted in Samuel’s brain started growing. Or maybe, think of it like a virus being in the incubation period, but that period is much shorter in this case than it would be if we were dealing with a normal virus. Remember that Samuel threatened Stephanie he will kill her if she won’t explain what’s going on? Have you ever heard him say anything like that before?”

Kassius nodded in disapproval, still frowning, as he was processing what I was explaining.

Judging from the look on his face, what I said made a lot of sense. I suddenly didn't feel dumb anymore.

“That’s when it started,” I went on. “Samuel was sad and angry. If I hadn’t done something, his rampage would have started much earlier.”

“What did you do?” Kassius asked me, taking me by surprise.

“I took him out for some fresh air, tried to cheer him up. And it worked… for a few hours, at least. He told me then... that sunsets make him sad. That’s how I figured out that Samuel’s rampage was caused by sadness and Oliver, who damaged him psychologically, not physically at all. What Oliver did to Samuel was actually triggered by sadness, awakening tremendous powers in him. You said it - Samuel is capable of much more than what I had seen. I know you said the truth for once, because I have seen now what he’s capable of. Although, I want to ask you something, Kassius… is _Samuel_ aware of what he can do?” I asked, looking straight into Kassius’ eyes as he released a deep sigh, avoiding my glare.

“No,” he answered.

I gasped, but somehow, I expected that answer. “Why did you lie to him?”

“It’s complicated," Kassius sighed. "Although, it’s over now. Samuel will find out the truth, but not from me. Promise me you won’t say anything to him yet. Lady Teresa will explain everything to him as soon as we get to Akai.”

I rolled my eyes, disappointed. “Fine, have it your way. Just know this,” I said, pointing my finger at Kassius. “If this happened because Samuel was sad, you all have to keep him happy from now on. Tell that to everyone. I won’t let you or anyone whom he trusts disappoint him again, you hear me?” I hissed at him. “He trusts you more than anyone, you were like his second father. “

“Did he say that?” Kassius asked, taken by surprise.

I just gave him a cold stare without giving the obvious answer to his question. 

“I see…” he sighed. “My time has passed, though. It’s you he needs now, more than anyone… Michael.”

I noticed how it took him two seconds to pronounce my name.

“By the way... is there something this Lady Teresa should let me know about as well?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

“I’m starting to believe there is. How did you survive being struck by lightning, Michael?” he asked me with a serious tone.

“I have no clue, “ I answered. “But I sure as hell want to find out how, too. I could also do things… I was able to stand on water.”

Kassius widened his eyes at me as if he’d seen a ghost.

That’s the moment I started questioning everything, as I began to feel so confused that I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I took a seat on the nearest chair as anxiety began bothering me again.

Remembering the panic attack I had in Kassius’ room when I felt the earthquake, I instinctively checked my palm where I cut myself to snap out of it. To my biggest surprise, the cut healed almost completely. I gasped out loud as I was staring inside my palm, forgetting that Kassius was there too.

“Are you alright?” he asked me.

“Uh… yeah, I guess. It’s just… I don’t know. I’m confused. Two days ago I was just a boring analyst.”

“Do you feel like running away?”

I looked at him, clouded by the question. “Why would I want to run away? I fee like he's...”

Kassius sighed without saying anything back, as his glare softened. After a short knock at the door, then Stephanie and Joshua came in.

“It wasn’t locked,” Joshua said apologetically, looking at me.

“It's fine,” I sighed.

“We defeated the beast,” the old man went on. “What rage nature holds, unbelievable. It’s been a while since I had to create and hold a barrier of that size for more than ten minutes.”

It was weird to me how calm Joshua was talking about powers and things like that with me around, as if he knew I was able to understand everything, somehow. It made me feel like he knew more about me than I did. Narrowing my eyes at him as well, I remembered he also called me “Nathan”.

How did he know my second name?

“How is he?” Stephanie asked me about Samuel.

“I’m not sure…” I sighed again.

She went by the bed and placed her hand on Samuel’s forehead.

“Oh, my!” she gasped. “It feels frozen! What if he has hypothermia?”

“I think there is someone here that can help with that,” Joshua said, looking at me again.

Stephanie turned around at me too, while Kassius was staring at Joshua, confused.

“Go on, kid. You’ll _know_ what to do,” the old man told me.

I was shocked by the request and somehow felt unable to move, but I forced myself to get up from my seat and slowly walked towards the bed. When I came next to Stephanie, she looked at me, then looked at Joshua, who only nodded at her with confidence.

“Give me your hand,” Stephanie told me.

I did as she said. Noticing the scar inside my palm, she frowned. “When did you cut yourself?” she asked.

“A few hours ago,” I sighed as I told her the truth, knowing it would create confusion because no wound heals that fast, but I had no reason to hide anymore.

I just wanted to understand what the hell was happening to me. 

Stephanie gasped, widening her eyes at me. “You’re- no, impossible... that can’t be…”

“I’m what?!” I snarled, consumed by anger which was also fed up by all the confusion in my head.

“Leave that for later, we need to save Samuel now,” she said, frowning. “As soon as he is stable, we depart for Akai. John prepared Samuel’s ship on the rooftop.”

A spaceship, wow. Nothing unusual, right?

I figured out where John had been all that time, at least. I just sighed and left the whole thing aside.

Samuel was more important to me than anything, anyway. 

“Now place one hand on his forehead and one on his chest please,” Stephanie said to me. “Then, close your eyes, calm yourself down and think about giving him all the warmth you have. I know it sounds silly, but I think it will work.”

I nodded and did what she said. After a few seconds, I felt like my hands were literally burning. I grunted. 

“What do you feel?” Stephanie asked me.

“My hands… are burning…”

What I said caught Kassius' attention as I felt his glare laid on me.

“Good. It’s working! I’m going to interfere now too, don’t lose focus, Michael!”

“... understood.”

When Stephanie interfered, I felt all the warmth from my hands leak as it started spreading all over Samuel’s body. We kept doing that for almost ten minutes while I felt sweat all over my hair and face, as I was trying my best to stay focused.

Suddenly, Samuel gasped for air as he instantly got up, almost making me fall over.

“Oh my god, it worked!” I exclaimed as I looked at him with widened eyes.

Prepared to jump and hug him like a kid, Stephanie grabbed my shirt, stopping me.

“Why?” I asked discreetly.

Samuel looked at us, confused. “Where am I?”

“Samuel, how do you feel?” Stephanie asked him while still holding my shirt. 

“A bit cold,” he answered calmly. “Michael, why is everyone gathered in our bedroom? Did something happen?”

Stephanie sighed in relief as she let go of my shirt. Probably she wanted to make sure Samuel was back to his normal self.

I instantly jumped to hug him. “They're here to take us with them, to Akai!”

“Okay, but what’s with the rush?” he scoffed, pushing me away.

I knew he felt cold, so I wanted to give him more of that warmth that I was apparently able to give away. Feeling that, he didn’t push me away again.

“Well, I can’t complain about waking up to this,” he smiled at me. “Although, you guys give me the creeps, you’re all standing here as if I’m in hospital or something. Can’t you just wait outside?”

“Uh… right,” Kassius gasped awkwardly, waving at the others to step out of the bedroom.

I laughed, glad that Samuel’s old attitude was back. The others went out in the living room, closing the door after them, while I remained with him.

“You know… we should dress up and go,” I suggested.

“I haven’t even woken up completely and you expect me to function without coffee?” Samuel scoffed as he attempted to take his phone, but couldn’t find it in his pockets. “Where is it? I never forget where my phone is.”

I noticed his phone placed on the nightstand next to which Kassius sat. He might have taken the phone before Samuel threw himself in the ocean and then left it on the nightstand while Samuel was still unconscious.

Probably his phone contained valuable information that couldn’t just... get lost in the ocean.

“There it is,” I said, pointing at the nightstand before I landed on the bed lazily.

“Oh. Strange, I never leave it there. Neverminded, I need to text John to bring us some coffee.”

“Okay, then we’ll go, right?” I asked him.

He gave me a confused look. “What’s with the rush, again?”

“We need to find out some things, and… I want to visit Akai!” I said.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to get ready?” Joshua's voice echoed from the other room.

“We’re waiting for John to bring us coffee,” Samuel explained. “Oh, he just texted me he’s at the door, can you go open up and take the coffee tray from him?” Samuel asked the old man.

“Sure.”

Meanwhile, before I attempted to cover myself, I swear I saw a lot of bugs running all over me. Out of nowhere. 

"What the fuuuuuuck!!!!!!!!" I yelled as I instantly jumped out of bed. "Samuel, watch out, there are bugs on the-"

When I looked at him, the bastard's eyes were red as he snorted out loud, burying his face in a pillow, laughing like psycho. 

“You fucker!” I snarled at Samuel as I instantly got back in bed. “How could you use your powers on me like that?!”

He was still laughing. "So you are easy to scare, in general."

“Huh?!” I cringed. “Are you kidding me?! This was another one of your experiments?! I’ll kill you!” I kept yelling, grabbing the collar of his shirt. “You’re a psychopath, ya hear me?!”

What a precious memory, this one. Now, when I think back, I'm laughing out loud as well.

I hope I won't wake Kassius or Vicky.

Right in that moment, Joshua came back in with a tray of coffee cups and almost dropped it when he saw my attempt to choke Samuel.

“Uh…”

“Don’t mind him, it’s the flu,” Samuel told him with a sickening calm tone as he covered me with a blanket, like my mom used to do it. “I think he caught something serious, we need him checked. Stephanie, would you-”

I instantly interrupted him by pressing my palm over his mouth.

“I’ll just leave these here,” Joshua hummed awkwardly as he placed the coffee tray on the nightstand and quickly got out of the room.

Samuel took my hand off his mouth and pushed me, almost making me fall out of bed. "You're such a loser."

"You’re still a psycho,” I pouted at him.

“Hn, who knows,” he said as he took a sip from his cup of coffee, satisfied. “Maybe I am.”

"How did you do it, though? Create illusions of bugs? That's new, you haven't told me you could also d-"

"I don't know," he said.

_Uh-oh._

  
  



	10. Departure

“The ship is ready,” I heard Kassius say from the living room.

Not even five seconds passed and I already heard multiple steps heading towards our bedroom’s door. Joshua was once again the one who opened it.

“Are you kids… ready to pack?” Joshua asked.

I could only see half of his head and it was so awkward that I felt the need to hide myself under the blanket again. In a very shy and unconscious attempt, I almost did it but Samuel noticed and poked my forehead.

“Come on, let’s pack,” he told me as he gestured to Joshua to go back and wait for us.

The way Samuel looked at me was different. He had superiority in his eyes before too, but this time it was more than that. It made me feel like a victim or something, his glare was the same as a lion’s when it looks at its prey after it has been devoured.

I blinked a few times as I still kept my gaze focused on his face. 

“Are you going to keep staring at me like that instead of packing? Or, maybe you have detached yourself from all that useless material shit you always carry around with you,” he mocked me as he got up from bed. “That would be good news.”

I pouted and threw a pillow at him out of frustration. Samuel scoffed in return and left the pillow on the floor. 

“You’re so childish,” he sighed, rubbing his forehead as he left the room, leaving me there, in bed. Alone.

It was not a feeling I wasn’t used to anyway, but when Samuel did that to me, I swear I could almost feel rain falling on my shoulders from a black cloud that suddenly popped above my head. 

“Wait!” I yelled with one hand in the air, but the door closed before anyone could hear me. “Tch, and I was worrying that-”

“Are you _still_ in bed?” Samuel came back in after only a few seconds, interrupting my monologue.

Kassius was also behind him with a sassy look on his face. 

Despite that, I couldn’t get out of that bed. I needed to go to the bathroom and you know the lazy feeling. Also, I had another problem... I didn't know why and from where, but I had a damn boner.

What a marvelous moment!

The most annoying part was that Samuel and Kassius kept standing there by the door, staring at me and waiting for me to get up. 

“Fine, go to the living room and wait for me, I need to go take a shower,” I told both of them as I met Samuel’s eyes, sending him an obvious message through my intense glare.

Of course he didn’t move, but Kassius sighed and backed away though, thankfully. 

“Come in here and shut the door behind you,” I told Samuel.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Now is not the time for being a lazy ass” he scoffed with an eye roll.

Not even an ounce of concern.

That’s Samuel, folks.

“You… don't get it.”

“So… what is it?” he snorted as he crossed his arms, scrutinizing my face, ready to judge me.

I remained mortified and he seemed to enjoy the result. It was like he switched with the “yang” part of his personality.

Actually, no. He was always like that. 

Something was telling me that I just pressed a button at some point and reactivated him without being aware of it.

“You can’t be a team leader with that flushed face, get your ass out of bed and get ready to depart, we need to get this shit over with so we can come back and put my plan into action.”

Probably my face turned into the color of a brick, but leaving that aside, Samuel was right, in a way.

I sighed and got up. When his eyes fixated _that_ area on my pants, I turned around because of embarrassment.

That was awkward as hell.

“That was your problem all along?” he snorted. “Tch, go to the bathroom already. Nobody would have noticed, dumbass.”

“ _You_ noticed!” I objected with a grimace.

Samuel scoffed with an eye roll. “Whatever. Probably because I am not human and _that_ doesn't just happen to me randomly.”

I took some clean clothes and headed to the bathroom, pouting.

After I finally took that shower and dressed up, instead of feeling fresh, I felt even more 'stained'. My pride felt like it's been washed away as I was still confused about Samuel’s new bossy attitude and it made me believe it had something to do with what happened to him. I wasn’t entirely sure, but it was a theory. There was an actual possibility that maybe he was like that for real and something made him open up after what we did the evening before on the beach.

Was I thinking too much?

“You’ve been staring at yourself in the mirror for ten minutes, you weirdo,” Samuel told me as I saw him behind me in the mirror, standing by the bathroom door.

I didn’t even hear when he opened it.

“What? Are you stalking me now? What the actual fuck?!” I snapped, gesturing with my hands in the air, chaotically.

“I’m just trying to understand you more,” he muttered. 

“People need their privacy, oh my god! I’m gonna lock the door from now on!”

“Hn, as long as you’re with me, you won’t have any of that so-called privacy,” Samuel smirked as he got closer with arms still crossed. “You can’t lock doors and expect me to be unable to unlock them, even without a key, you know that.”

“Wha-”

He was in front of me before I was able to notice.

My pride was starting to get buried six feet under.

He kept 'scanning' my face with his eyes, which were as dark as the void of space, as his head was tilted a little bit, just like dogs tilt their heads when they are curious.

That one was new, too. Seeing so much curiosity in Samuel’s eyes, who was more like a cat rather than a dog, always ignoring what wasn’t important to him.

Of course, this made me feel like he started considering me important. After only a few days. Weird, I know, right? I was still overwhelmed by the outworldly connection we had. The worst part, though, was the fact that I couldn’t talk to him about his rampage he just had before he woke up because we had to wait until we got to Akai and talk with that Teresa lady.

There were so many answers I needed from her...

“ _Human_ , huh?” Samuel muttered as he ran a finger through my hair. “You’re too weird, even for a human.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I objected, feeling judged by his dark eyes. “Don’t look at me like the alien you are.”

“Do you trust me?” he asked with soft tone, a frown crossing his forehead.

“Yeah, sure,” I said with ease.

His eyes widened at me for less than a second, then he sighed in relief as he blinked slowly. “I know. Thank you.”

“Huh? What are you thanking me for?” I asked anxiously. 

“For trusting me, obviously,” he scoffed as he pointed one of his fingers towards my forehead.

With our glares locked, my body froze, waiting for his finger to touch my forehead.

When he poked it, I suddenly felt like my feet weren’t able to keep me stable anymore and my vision became blurry.

Samuel grabbed my waist as he prepared to hold me so I won’t fall on the floor.

“Sweet dreams,” were the last words I heard him mutter.

* * *

**Saturday, August 28, 2081**

_**(c)Snow124** _

_“_ _What are you doing, Seryth?”_

_“Just wait.”_

_“For what?”_

_“You’ll see. “_

_“Hey, it’s snowing! Wow, really?”_

_“Hn, I thought about doing something to cool this place down, you’re too hot.”_

_“Now you’re mocking me!”_

I woke up with a loud gasp as I placed my palm on my forehead, pressing my fingers against it.

I saw _them_ again. Seryth and Nikaellan… they were so similar to me and Samuel, except... they seemed to be a couple... I still had no clue how I could see flashbacks with other people and why. Was I connected to them? Were they communicating with me? They were dead, so how could that be possible?

I didn’t believe in ghosts, so there was no explanation in my head at that moment. I just sighed.

“Good, you’re awake,” I heard Kassius say.

I looked in his direction and suddenly noticed the surroundings changed. We were not at the hotel anymore.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“This is Anmi. It’s a spaceship. We’re ready to land on Akai in a few hours,” he explained.

“ _What?!_ ” I snapped as I instantly stood up. “How long was I asleep?!”

“Hmm,” Kassius muttered as he placed his fist under his chin, thinking, “approximately two days, five hours and twenty five minutes.”

“ _Approximately_ , huh?” I asked ironically. 

I suddenly remembered I passed out after Samuel kissed me at the hotel. I was sure he did something to me. “Where is Samuel?” I asked as a frown crossed my face. “I need to talk to him.”

“He’s sleeping,” Kassius answered.

“Not anymore,” I scoffed as I prepared to go and find him.

Kassius didn’t even try to stop me, he just sighed and rolled his eyes at me.

It felt weird being around him, it was as if he knew me already before meeting me. I gave him a sharp glare as I pressed a button on the wall and the door opened.

I wondered how I knew it would, I’d never been on a spaceship before. Or at least, that’s what I thought back then.

As I was walking angrily through the white hallway, I realized I didn’t ask Kassius where Samuel was. I pouted and just decided to try knocking at every door in sight until I found him. After trying almost seven doors, I felt anger building up within me.

“Tch, where is he-” I hissed.

“Oh, it was you,” Samuel’s clear voice echoed in the hallway after I heard a door slide open behind me. 

I turned around with my face flushed by anger. “Of course it was me. Why, are you surprised I’m _awake_?”

“Actually, yes,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “You should have stayed asleep until we arrived.”

“Wha-... what the hell, Samuel?”

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he leaned comfortably against the door, crossing his arms.

“Why on earth did you knock me down? That’s not the stuff people do to each other!”

“I needed to keep you out of your anxiety episodes, this journey had a lot of turbulence after leaving Earth’s atmosphere,” he said, ignoring how I felt completely. “Stop playing the victim and come inside.”

I didn’t know why but my body just moved at his demand without hesitation, like a mouse that falls into a trap again just because it has food in it.

As I followed him in his room, which looked very clean and empty by the way, I noticed his hair didn’t look as if he slept at all.

“So… is this spaceship yours?” I asked, trying to ignore my concerns.

“Yeah. Do you want to watch a movie or something? I’m bored,” Samuel said with his voice muffled as he was chewing something. “Hungry?”

He pointed at a little table that had a plate with cherry tomatoes and cheddar cheese chunks on it.

“Now I understand why you were so amazed by my cooking skills,” I snorted. “Do you eat that simple stuff on a daily basis?”

“Tomatoes are my favorite fruit and they taste good combined with cheddar cheese. I actually know how to cook a lot of things, I just don't have the time to do it anymore.”

“Tomatoes are vegetables by the way,” I corrected him with blind confidence.

“Oh, really?” he asked with a mocking tone as he raised an eyebrow.

“Whatever, it’s as you say,” I replied, convinced he was right because of course he was the genius.

“How can an ignorant idiot like you work in a corporation and possess leading skills, it amazes me,” he scoffed.

“Oi, why are you being rude? You put me to sleep for almost three days and now that I woke up, you’re throwing this shitty attitude at me!” I pouted.

I wasn’t mad at him, though. I could not find any reason to be, I just felt weak and that pissed me off. Normally, people would be mad at someone who would act that way after only a few days they met, but me and Samuel… we were about to find out soon why it was so natural for both of us to be in the same place and how we could act so natural around one another.

“I’m not throwing any shitty attitude, “ Samuel objected. 

I saw him look away as he sighed deeply. There was something in his dark eyes that troubled him.

I promised myself I wouldn’t let him be sad anymore. I needed to do something to cheer him up, but how could I, when our roles got reversed? Would anything I do surprise him anymore, now that he seemed to insist on being always the one in control?

Also, I wanted to ask him so many questions, one of them being about why did he own a spaceship in the first place if he didn’t know Akai was his home planet. And not any spaceship- one that could apparently travel pretty fast.

He sat on the bed after he took another tiny tomato and ate it. “Are you waiting for something in particular?” he asked, interrupting my chain of thoughts. 

I felt an inner gasp as I swallowed the lump in my throat.

I needed to think fast about something that would instantly cheer Samuel up. Was it something childish? No, that would have definitely annoyed him. I walked over to the bed and sat beside him, still thinking about what I could do.

“Where’s your head at?” Samuel asked without even looking at me, as he was doing something on his laptop.

“I, uh… what movie do you wanna watch? I don’t have anything particular in mind,” I said, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. 

“Hn.” he scoffed. “How about we watch porn?”

I started feeling my head boil like a pot forgotten on the stove. “What the fuck!?”

“I was joking, loser,” he snorted.

“Yeah, I hope so, because it would make sense, ‘cause lately you’ve been acting weird.”

"Weird?"

"Yeah, I mean why do you act like you-"

A loud thud suddenly made the whole ship tremble, interrupting me.

“What the heck was that!?” I gasped.

After less than a few seconds, desperate knock on the door alerted us.

“Quick, we’re being attacked!” Kassius' voice echoed from the hallway.

“Who the hell is it? What’s this all about?! And why isn't the security system on, for fuck's sake?!”

“They’re the guys who kidnapped Michael,” Kassius replied.

"Shit," Samuel slurred.

I knew I was never lucky, but this was way too much, even for me. 

“Welcome back, anxiety,” I mumbled.

“It’s fine. Nobody attacks my ship and gets away with it. I’ll blast their asses into oblivion,” Samuel hissed as he got up.. “Stay here and wait for me to come back,” he demanded.

“No way,” I objected. “I’m coming with you! They want you dead!”

“This is not the time to play the hero, moron. Last time you weren’t even able to escape, they just threw you away like trash, but now if they see us together, they’ll target you as well.”

“Are we actually arguing over who wants to protect who?”

Samuel sighed. “You can't _protect me_ , what the hell could _you_ do? Damn it, I don’t even have a chance against your stubbornness, do I?”

“Of course not! Last time I was the one who saved y-”

I instantly stopped as I remembered I was not supposed to talk about his rampage, also realizing he couldn't remember our fight and the fact that I also had some tricks up my sleeve.

My face turned red as Samuel was looking at me, confused.

“Is there something I should know about?” he asked me bluntly. his eyes narrowed in distrust.

“Oi, are guys coming out or not?!” Kassius yelled behind the closed door.

“We are,” Samuel sighed again before he gave me a quick, cold glare. "We'll talk about this later."


	11. Unleashed

Another loud thud made the ship tremble again as we were running through the hallway, towards the command room.

Samuel frowned as he turned to Kassius. “How far from Akai are we?” 

“One hour. I think they want to damage our engine and make us crash on Akai, so we’ll be destroyed by its atmosphere,” Kassius explained.

“Not if I do that to them first,” Samuel hissed. “I need to contact the borders on Akai, can we do that?”

“We might be able to, if we get just a little bit closer, I don’t think we have any signal yet. Let’s hurry, Joshua and Stephanie are already in the command room.”

“Tch, what are they doing there?! Send them to the engine room so they can activate a protection shield or something!” Samuel demanded.

“How did you know they can do that?” Kassius asked him, knowing that Samuel couldn't remember what happened that morning when he went all crazy.

“I figured it out, Stephanie’s techniques are similar to mine, aren't they? I’d go do it myself but I want to take care of these idiots, so do as I say!”

“Oh, so now that you're all grown up, you’re the captain?” Kassius mocked him. “Fine, have it your chaotic way.”

Samuel just scoffed. His attitude made me worry a little, to be honest. But what could I say in response? I was never in control, was I? 

When we arrived in the command room, Kassius told Stephanie and Joshua to go to the engine room as Samuel demanded, while the three of us remained there.

The command room had a huge front window, letting us see space in all its glory.

“ _Amazing,”_ I thought. I bet the stars’ reflections could be seen into my eyes as I was staring at them. I made a few steps towards the command board, where Samuel was typing something on the keyboard, trying to contact someone on Akai, which could already be seen. The planet had a Moon just like Earth and it was also blue with a slight touch of red.

The computer beeped as the " [ N O S I G N A L ] "message popped up in the middle of the screen.

“Damn it,” Samuel slurred. “If I could only remember how to break the computer’s security system… that would allow me to reach longer distances…”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but he seemed to have. Samuel looked really angry and concerned and all I could do was look at him and wait for him to come up with a solution. The problem was that those bastards were aiming at us from behind, which made things even more complicated as we could not see them.

At least, that’s what I thought… that if we could see them, things would be easier. 

I instantly regretted thinking that way when my eyes widened at the enemy’s ship suddenly popping up in front of the main window.

My heart skipped a beat.

“Everybody down!!” I yelled as I instantly grabbed Samuel and threw our bodies on the floor. Kassius threw himself behind a wall too as the whole room lit up from the blast sent by the enemy’s ship, followed by an explosion that caused Anmi to tremble. 

“Oh fuck, I think they broke the main window!!” I screamed.

“Don’t worry, it’s shielded to hold against a hundred blasts like those,” Samuel muttered as he pushed me away so he could get up. “They can’t destroy this vessel no matter how hard they try. The engine is our only weak point and it’s being protected now against any threat. I hope Stephanie and Joshua will be able to keep a hold of it.”

“Well, what do we do now, captain?” Kassius asked with a mocking tone. “We can’t even stay in sight.”

“I already said this vessel is indestructible from the outside, there was no point in hiding, they already saw us.” Samuel replied. “Besides, if it’s a blasting game they want to play, I’ll gladly join. I built this ship from zero and made it capable of anyone’s worst nightmares, they’re fools to challenge me. I promised myself to destroy any insect that threatens the Earth since that damned war took place. Now it’s time to finally use Anmi’s destruction capacity at its full power,” he explained.

Samuel could be a bit scary, after all.

A smile lit up his face as he pushed a red toggle switch from the command board. “Let’s see how you can handle this one,” he hissed, looking straight ahead at the ship floating outside in front of the window.

Anmi’s front lit up as we heard a loading sharp sound for like three seconds, then the whole ship trembled back and forth a bit as it released the blast. I got up to see what happened and I did it just in time to notice the enemy’s ship being blasted so hard that a few pieces from it were blown into the void.

“Hn,” Samuel smirked. “Prepare for the second round, you mediocre specks of dust!”

“Oi, Samuel, take it easy, don’t heat up the system!” Kassius warned him.

Of course Samuel ignored him, that was so typical.

Anmi trembled again after another sharp sound, as another blast was sent the enemy’s way. They were hit again to Samuel’s satisfaction, which seemed to grow, one blast after another.

As I looked at his face, all the light from the blast and the stars from outer space could be seen in his dark eyes as if he was a part of that black void. An outworldly feeling took over me, sending shivers up my spine as goosebumps formed all over my skin. It felt surreal.

My mind had been narrowed so much that I could not believe I was actually living those moments back then. All I knew and all I could do… was watch, right?

That’s right, because I was always able to tell when something was not right, and the feeling instantly made me alert.

“Samuel…” I muttered as I grabbed his arm and held it tightly. “Something’s wrong.”

“What is it?” Kassius asked.

I frowned when I noticed Samuel ignoring me as he prepared to send another blast. “Oi, are you paying any attention? Don’t act stubborn with me!” I groaned.

Samuel only moved his eyes towards mine, without letting go of the toggle switch. “I’m listening.”

“Don’t you find it strange that they don’t send any attacks our way anymore?”

“So? Maybe I finally took care of them for good,” Samuel sassed.

“As much as I love seeing you this confident, I’m afraid I’ve still got a bad feeling. One of those feelings I told you about,” I went on with a low, serious tone.

He frowned, finally taking his hand off the toggle switch. “That means… no way. Are you saying that-”

“I knew Aymera should have killed you, you’re a sharp one” a voice coming from behind us interrupted him.

“Impossible…” Samuel muttered as he turned around, widening his eyes at the sight of the enemy. "Did you teleport here?"

It was the same red haired guy, Ceroy, the one that stood behind the computer when I got kidnapped.

“Oh, glad to finally find you, Uhyra scumbag. It’s such a pity I can’t kill you, but no one said anything about your pretty blue-eyed comrade. He’ll make a good sandwich,” the guy laughed. “Oh, and I finally get to see the mighty genius, Kassius Hathorn. May I test if the rumors about you are right?”

Samuel’s eyes narrowed at Kassius after hearing that.

“I’m not your lab rat,” Kassius hissed. “Where are the others from your crew?”

“I came alone,” Ceroy hummed annoyingly. 

“Don’t mock us, I know there’s no one left on your ship, liar!” I snapped at the red-haired foe. “Where’s that woman, Aymera? She owes me an explanation for last time.” 

Ceroy widened his eyes at me for a second. “Oh my, so you remember everything? How is that even possible? I erased your memory. Interesting… how can you tell that no one’s on the ship, though?”

“That’s none of your business,” I responded. “But I guess you’re right. He really came alone, “ I told Samuel, who was keeping his guard up, sending Ceroy death glares. 

“Oh, you’re a cocky one, I see. The loudest ones always die first, anyway. Maybe there’s some energy in you too for me to consume after all, just in case the mighty Kassius won’t be enough.”

“What are you blabbering about? Consuming energy? What the-”

“Of course, that’s how I keep my body alive!” Ceroy snickered.

Something was really odd about him and the cocktail of feelings that stirred inside of me wasn’t helpful at all. 

“You’re pathetic,” Samuel replied with a mocking tone. “Try to keep your body alive after I scatter it through space.”

“Oh, really?” Ceroy laughed. “You’re threatening me, yet you don’t even know who you’re dealing with. I know the nature of your prowess, I did my research and it won’t work against me, sorry to disappoint you. Besides, I bet you don’t even know how to control _your_ abilities, leaving mine aside, because I don’t need anything special.”

I clenched my teeth when he said that Samuel couldn’t control his abilities, because it was actually true. I had no idea how that Ceroy guy guessed that, or how did he know that.

I sent Kassius a cold, sharp glare, judging him again for keeping things hidden from Samuel. He met my eyes and sighed, probably overwhelmed by the situation.

“You’re talking big for someone who actually talks nonsense,” Kassius hissed at him.

Ceroy cleared his throat in a mocking way. “I’m getting bored, so I think this is the part where I finish you off. You, Uhyra, are coming with me.”

“You’re not laying a hand on Samuel,” I shot back.

“Don’t worry, Michael, this guy can’t even scratch me,” Samuel said, completely unsympathetic, as he stretched out his left arm, pointing it at Ceroy.

I felt relieved, thinking that maybe Samuel was right to be confident, after all, the guy didn’t look too threatening.

He kept his arm pointed at Ceroy for more than ten seconds, as both me and Kassius were paying attention at what was about to happen. Too bad we were both disappointed by Samuel’s face crossed by a frown as the enemy seemed remain unbothered.

Ceroy started laughing mockingly. “I bet this is the moment when you realize your abilities don’t work on me, fool!”

He took out a weird knife as he instantly jumped towards Samuel, who tried using his telekinesis again to throw away the knife from Ceroy’s hand, but failed again.

“What the-”

“Samuel, get away from him!” Kassius yelled, throwing himself in front of Ceroy, punching him and dodging his knife.

“Is this guy floating?” I muttered, widening my eyes at the sight of him shaking his head a little while he was still in the air, when he should have already fallen on the floor. 

“Wrong,” Ceroy snickered as he launched himself at Samuel again, without pushing himself against anything solid, as if we were in zero gravity. “Now you’re mine.”

Samuel prepared himself to dodge Ceroy’s attack, paying a lot of attention to his speed. The redhead did another jump in mid air and instantly changed his direction, confusing us all, including Samuel, who suddenly found himself stabbed in the back.

“Samuel!” I yelled my lungs out at the sight of him being hurt, as I caught my body instantly running towards the enemy, while a burning sensation was filling me up from inside out, overloading me with rage. 

When Samuel fell on his knees, I widened my eyes so much I thought they were going to pop out. I instinctively squeezed them shut as a frown wrinkled my whole face before I opened them again and punched Ceroy so hard that he swirled through the air with unbelievable speed before he landed on the floor, cracking it.

Both Samuel and Kassius widened their eyes at the sight of my rage.

“Touch him again and you’ll be fuel for this ship, you filthy bastard!” I growled.

I became aware of how different, how hoarse my voice must have sounded, but was I able to tell if I was myself anymore?

“What the hell are you?!” Ceroy snapped as he tried hard to get up. “That monster strength… you can’t be human, no way. Aymera was wrong…”

“Stop talking bullshit... get up and fight me, if that’s what you want. I was born on Earth, raised on Earth and lived my whole life on that planet. I am definitely human. You know why? Because my humanity is telling me you’re a scumbag full of shit,” I hissed at him as I prepared myself to attack him again.

“M-Michael… wait. I figured out what he is,” Samuel told me through moans of pain. 

Hearing his voice, I softened up instantly, but that burning sensation within me still didn’t go away.

“He’s neither human nor a machine,” Samuel went on. “His body is made of wood, metal and… _pure energy_ … which is unable to be manipulated by abilities like mine.”

I instantly went to hold him after I saw him cough blood. The rage building up within me started feeling like the eternal flames of hell, impossible to be put out. 

“Calm down,” Samuel whispered as he grabbed my wrist, holding it tightly. "I can heal myself, but it will take a few more minutes.”

“I’m afraid I won’t let you do that,” Ceroy laughed as he got up from the floor.

“Tch, you still want to go for a second round, don’t you?” I hissed at him again.

Samuel’s hand stroke mine again as he looked straight into my eyes. “Listen... my techniques might work on him only if he has a weak spot. He must have one, but I don’t know where. Can you figure it out?” he asked.

“It’s in his chest,” Kassius told us. "Similar to a heart."

“How can you tell?” Samuel asked, narrowing at Kassius once again, as he tried to get back on his feet with my help.

“Take it as a guess, Samuel. Just consider it.”

“ _You_ … the rumors were right…” Ceroy hissed at Kassius. “You killed a kek’ar aryun and took their visual prowess, didn’t you?”

“What I have is a gift from someone, “ Kassius responded, leaving both me and Samuel in a fog of confusion.

Remembering that I was called a kek’ar aryun by that woman, Aymera, who actually thought I was Samuel, he must have been a kek’ar aryun in that context. Not knowing anything about what that was, I couldn’t even draw a conclusion or ask a question.

Actually, forget what I said, the only conclusion I could think of was that Kassius wasn’t human as well, like Samuel. And that was enough to overwhelm me with confusion again.

“Do it now, Samuel!” Kassius demanded.

Samuel did as he was told, stretching out his left arm, pointing it at the enemy's chest. 

“Sorry, but this is my cue,” Ceroy snickered as he disappeared before our eyes.

“What?!” Samuel snapped.

“Teleportation,” Kassius sighed. “He didn’t do it, though. Someone from his crew saved his ass. Their ship also disappeared.“

“Bastard,” I grunted. “We shouldn’t have let him get away.”

“We weren’t ready for this. The actual problem is that he has information about us now. Especially about _you,_ Michael,” Kassius went on. 

“What about me?” I asked.

“Nevermind that now, we’re a few minutes far from Akai and we need to warn them about these guys as soon as possible. Samuel, can you stand on your feet?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Is it possible these guys retreated for good?”

“I’m more than certain, they’re no match for the Akayans,” Kassius replied. "Maybe there's no point in warning them after all."

We suddenly heard a loud thud as the whole ship trembled again, making us fall on the floor.

"What is it again?" I grunted. "Are they back?"

“Shit, we entered the atmosphere,” Samuel said. “The speed will be double.”

“Stephanie, both you and Joshua put on the protection equipment and come here asap, we entered the atmosphere,” Kassius demanded through his earphone. “Everybody on their seat,” he told us after.

As we took our seats in front of the main window, the protection belts activated, snaking over our shoulders and wrapping our chests and waists as we leaned our backs on the armchairs. A protection helmet coming out of the chairs suddenly surrounded our heads too as the countdown on the computer started.

“ _10...9...8…”_


	12. Welcome To Aksao

I thought it was terrifying when a plane lands… but it can’t be compared to the landing of a spacecraft. It felt like our bodies had been dug into the ground through the armchairs we were sitting on. I started patting myself all over my body to check if it was still intact. 

Samuel just sighed shortly at the sight of my anxious ass, then looked around us, passively. “Great, now that we're here, it's time to find out how big of a lie my life has been.”

I swear I heard Kassius swallow dry for a second after Samuel said that.

Well, why was I surprised? He was the only one responsible for the fog in Samuel’s mind.

I was also a bit of a hypocrite myself, because I chose not to say anything to Samuel when I found him on the bathroom floor, ready to cut himself with a piece from the mirror he broke. Would it have made any difference, though? It was a few days before this moment, compared to whole years of keeping things away from him, like Kassius did, right?

“What about _my_ life?” I asked as I was trying to deactivate the protection belts. 

“They’ll deactivate themselves, idiot.” Samuel scoffed when he saw what I was doing. 

“ I-... I knew that! I just… tried to loosen them up a little, they’re uncomfortable,” I pouted, obviously lying.

“Yeah, of course,” Samuel rolled his eyes.

“Jerk.”

I was still in a state of shock, because of Samuel’s new cocky behavior.

Amazing, how your brain being messed with can change you. Maybe it wasn’t because of that, maybe Samuel started to become himself in front of me, without the need to be formal.

I suddenly remembered he must have been pissed at me though, because he told me we were going to talk later about the fact that there were things I haven't told him.

Yeah, it was definitely that.

“We’ll see what was going on with your life too, probably,” Kassius answered my question, also interrupting my thoughts.

I frowned at him, convinced that he knew everything already, but too bad I couldn’t ask, because Samuel was there.

“Yours too,” Samuel surprisingly replied to Kassius, sending him a sharp glare.

Now that was surprising.

Somehow, it made me feel good, because I always hated when people confused others close to them and Kassius needed to be held responsible for that. But I also knew that Samuel might turn out devastated, maybe even go on a rampage again after learning about the things that were kept hidden from him, because I could bet they were so many, and knowing about them might have helped Samuel a lot.

Maybe he would have turned out different, maybe he could have defended himself when Oliver attacked him and his mind wouldn’t have been poisoned with whatever the hell that freak damaged it with.

But of course things couldn’t be perfect, right?

The seatbelts finally deactivated, letting us get up as we all sighed in relief. The door behind us slid open as both Joshua and Stephanie stepped into the command room.

“That was a hell of a ride,” Joshua snorted. “Can we go again?”

I thought there wasn’t a bigger idiot than me on that ship, but there he was. Joshua was a really odd guy. Still reminded me of someone.

“Whoa!” I gasped at the sight of the scenery as we got out of the ship. “This place looks like a video-game!”

Samuel rolled his eyes at my remark. "Dork."

“This is Aksao, the only city on Akai,” Stephanie enunciated.

“The only city?” I asked.

“Yes. This planet is even smaller than Pluto. It does not have continents, only five countries and Aksao is the capital of Taiyonokuni, meaning the Sun Country. There is also Tsukinokuni, meaning the Moon Country, and there are three more left, Xio, Phea and Kreo, which are small countries named after the closest star aligned above them. None of them have cities as big as Aksao, just tiny villages,” Stephanie explained.

If one of my biggest dreams as a kid was to teleport myself in some science-fiction video game, so it felt like it finally came true. The scenery gave me a lot of Neo-Tokyo vibes with a futuristic style. There was nothing like that on Earth.

I mean, _not anymore._

“So, where are we going?” Kassius asked.

“There,” Stephanie pointed at a huge building ahead. 

“Wow, how are we going to get there, though?” I asked like a little kid.

“I’ll take you!” A voice echoed from around the corner right before we turned our heads left, to see a guy with short black hair and a pointy beard, riding some kind of sky jet that looked more like a flying boat. He had a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. “My name is Asun, welcome to Aksao!”

 _“I could say he looks like a cyberpunk redneck”_ I thought, analyzing his outfit.

We all smiled politely, but I bet we were all confused. Or maybe it was just me, who knows.

The guy looked human when I expected some alien looks. But Samuel, Stephanie and Kassius looked normal too, right? Probably Joshua wasn’t human either. 

“Kassius, I haven’t seen you in ages,” Asun said. 

The masked professor turned red. “Right,” he cleared his throat nervously. 

“Are we going to see Lady Teresa now?” Samuel asked with a cold tone. 

Asun analyzed Samuel visually, from head to toes, then his eyes fixated on me too.

“Who are they?” he asked Stephanie.

My guess was right, it seemed. That Asun guy knew Kassius, Stephanie and Joshua too. I frowned as the urge for my questions to be answered intensified. 

“This is Samuel and Michael. They are from Earth. Samuel has been Kassius’ student since he was a toddler.”

Asun’s glare went straight to Kassius. “I see. You spent some good time on Earth, didn’t you, Kassius? What luck! I wish I could see it, everyone here thinks it’s so beautiful.”

Samuel scoffed. “Uncultured ignorants. You know nothing.”

Asun narrowed his eyes at Samuel, frowning.

“Uh, excuse him, he’s been through a lot, you know?” I hummed awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head. “I know he seems to be a jerk, but he is a nice person on the inside!”

Samuel sent me a death glare, probably annoyed by the all unnecessary personal details I just gave away about him, to a stranger.

Samuel wasn’t an open person and I seemed to have forgotten at that moment. 

“Well, we should go,” Stephanie suggested. “We can learn more about each other soon, I hope.”

Asun nodded and waved a hand at us, inviting everyone to hop into his jet. After we did as suggested, a protection field activated and appeared above our heads, surrounding the whole vehicle, making it look similar to a car.

“How cool!” I exclaimed. 

As the seatbelts activated and adjusted on our chests and waists on their own, the jet’s engine started.

“Hold tight, it’s a fast thing!” Asun warned us.

“Whoaaaa!” I yelled as the vehicle accelerated and took off.

In less than two minutes, we arrived. I could barely breathe properly anymore because of all that adrenaline. During the short ride, I was so scared I didn’t even pay attention to the view, because I was busy with keeping my eyes squeezed shut.

“Are you okay, scaredy cat?” Samuel snickered at me, lending me a hand so I could get out of the jet. 

The embarrassment I felt when he said that in front of everyone cannot be described with words. 

“Tch, I’m fine, bastard. I can get out of this thing on my own, you know!” I sassed stubbornly.

"Fine, have it your way," Samuel shrugged and let his hand down as I tried to place my foot somewhere to stabilize myself.

Of course it got caught in some narrow space between the door and the edge of the vehicle.

“Damn iiit!” I squealed as I tripped over.

“Idiot,” Samuel scoffed with an eye roll.

And of course Joshua had to laugh. Why not.

Very funny, indeed. “Shut up,” I hissed.

We headed to the entrance of the building silently. No one made a single sound after they saw me humiliate myself.

_Why did I always have to be the buffoon in every situation?_

“Your mind is loud as hell, shut it down,” Samuel said with a mocking tone.

“Why are you being rude again?!” I shot back.

“Boys, calm down,” Joshua said. “You’ll get to be alone soon again and you’ll temper your hormones properly. Until then, behave.”

Samuel’s face turned red and I felt like I was about to trip over bare ground.

That damned Joshua.

Kassius cleared his throat awkwardly in response.

Before I realized, we were already in an elevator. We heard a beep after a few more seconds, indicating we were at level thirty. 

“Here we are,” Asun said. “Stephanie, you know where to find Lady Teresa, right? I need to go back to the Academy.”

Stephanie nodded and we got out of the elevator, heading right onto the hallway. _“_

 _Finally no more buildings made of glass”_ I thought. It still had fifty floors, though. I guessed rich people will always be obsessed with heights.

When we stopped in front of a double metal door, Stephanie pressed a button and it opened. A blonde woman was sitting behind a desk, surrounded by a lot of papers. Tons of papers. I noticed she looked very attractive, straight out of a magazine.

Big breasts, pale skin and perfectly shaped face with stunning hazel eyes.

“Stephanie, you’re back already? And you two, long time no see,” she muttered at Kassius and Joshua.

“Lady Teresa, I brought you some visitors,” Stephanie hummed.

Teresa narrowed her eyes at me, but not at Samuel. 

“Kirai, please bring me six cups of tea,” she said as she pressed a button on her desk. “Who are they?” she asked Stephanie.

“This is Samuel, and this is Michael… uh, Samuel’s partner.”

“We came here because it’s the time they find out the truth,” Joshua interrupted Teresa.

The blonde woman fixated her eyes on me and Samuel. She was a little bit scary, I must admit.

“What do you mean by that? Kassius, shouldn’t you be taking care of Sanneth? That was your mission, what are you doing here with these two brats?” 

“Language, Teresa,” Joshua sighed. “Damn, you’re still the same bitchy witch you were at the Academy.”

“Shut up, Jirath,” she scoffed.

“Okay, can someone finally explain what’s with all the different names I keep on hearing? I might go insane, especially after the past few days!” I complained.

Teresa sighed. “Jirath, what’s the meaning of all this?”

“What’s so bad about changing my name? People call me Joshua now, Teresa, I needed a name suitable for someone who lives on Earth. Do you understand now, Michael?”

I nodded, still confused and filled up with more questions, ready to burst out like pop-up windows in a browser.

Teresa’s glare moved back to Kassius. “I’m still waiting for an answer,” she said.

“Well, you’re looking at him,” Kassius said, pointing at Samuel. “This is Sanneth Uhyra.”

Samuel’s eyes instantly widened for three seconds, then narrowed, as his gaze kept moving from Kassius to Teresa constantly.

The blonde woman frowned. “Kassius…” she began, “what did I tell you when I gave you that mission? Why is Sanneth _here,_ of all places?! It’s dangerous!” she finished as she slammed the desk with one of her fists.

“Because he deserves to know the truth. The substitutions you gave Sanneth as his parents were killed fourteen years ago and we were recently attacked by the people of Krul, including Lord Orris. They kidnapped Michael before that, thinking he was Sanneth.”

 _“Substitutions… so Kassius knew about that too, all along…”_ I thought, clenching my teeth as anger started building up within me and within Samuel as well, because his face was red and the frown crossing his face was so strong I could barely see his eyes anymore. 

Teresa’s face turned even paler than it was before, as her eyebrows were somehow shaking. Her widened eyes looked like they were staring through her desk.

“Despite that, I don’t think the guy that killed Sanneth’s parents was after Sanneth,” Joshua said.

“What?” Kassius gasped. “What do you mean?”

The old man sighed. “I think they were after Michael’s power and Sanneth's adoptive parents simply wanted to stop those guys back then. Michael here... is the missing _Nakaeron Uzkaeri_.”

Everybody in the room widened their eyes and pointed their glares at me, even Samuel, whose eyes finally reflected a mix of terror, anger and confusion.

I got so scared he might go on a rampage again that my feet started shaking. I felt like my spirit wanted to leave my body as it went numb.

“Impossible….” Teresa whispered probably to herself, but everybody heard her. “Nakaeron is dead! His parents were mutilated in front of your eyes, Jirath!” she went on.

“Yeah, and I saved the poor kid, Teresa, he was just a newborn baby, laying under a pile of rocks. I've done something none of the soldiers you sent would have done,” the old man frowned. 

“That’s not true, they told me they checked everywhere!” Teresa objected. “They couldn’t find him, that is why he was reported as missing and not dead, but… you know what was the obvious conclusion everybody came to, right?!”

Looking at Samuel, I felt the need to interfere, otherwise I don't know what could've happened inside my mind. “Enough! Leave me out of this discussion now. You, lady. You’re going to tell Samuel everything about him, every ounce of truth you know.”

“How dare you order me around, kid?! Do you even know who I am?!” she snapped.

“I don’t give a damn about your status right now, to be honest. Samuel is more important here. Also, it seems like both me and him are victims of your stupid lies!”

Samuel’s glare softened up a little after he heard me say that.

He sighed. “I apologize, Michael is kind of too straightforward. I think Joshua is telling the truth, I feel connected to Michael, somehow. That’s all I know. I feel like we’ve met before. Also, you said something about his power. He acted strange a few hours ago when a guy named Ceroy attacked me. His eyes turned from blue to yellow and I suddenly felt a lot of heat in the air. The vibrations flowing through his body were not ordinary ones. He was also surrounded by a yellow aura.”

I was shocked to hear that. I was aware of the fact that I felt strange when I saw Samuel being hurt by Ceroy, but still... it meant Ceroy was right.

_I... wasn't human._

I felt the need to take a seat somewhere, but there was no chair in sight so I just crossed my arms as I kept moving my feet anxiously. I was also shocked by how calm Samuel was.

Teresa sighed. “Sanneth, I-”

“Call me Samuel for now, please. It might take some time for me to get used to being called Sanneth. I can't wait for that though, I hate the name Samuel.”

Teresa smiled in response, which annoyed me even more, as if it was normal, as if it was okay for us to think we were-

“So, you are able to control your powers and Michael isn’t?” she asked, catching my attention.

“I don’t have any powers,” Samuel responded blankly. “It’s just science. I have a device that-”

“I think it’s high time you told him,” Joshua told Teresa, interrupting Samuel, who instantly frowned.

“Tell me what?”

Teresa sighed. “You see, kid, Agra Corporation belongs to Aksao. It has been founded by people from the Moon Country who came to work here. The people I gave the mission to protect you as your adoptive parents are from here. As you can guess, almost a half from the people that work for your company at this very moment are not from Earth, they’re akayans. They are there as subordinates of Saruk the Third, former King of The Sun Country, who’s currently on Earth too, known as Scott Aiden. He-”

“He’s dead,” I interrupted her. 

“What?!” she gasped as the glass of water next to her instantly broke.

I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut in order to avoid getting glass shards in them.

When I opened them back, all the shards were floating in mid air as Samuel had his arm outstretched. When he let it down, all the glass pieces fell on the floor.

I sighed in relief, thankful he stopped them. I was right to be scared of Teresa, apparently she had some tremendous powers up her sleeve. 

“How… how is this possible?!" she snarled. “What the hell is happening on Earth and why wasn’t I informed? You came all the way here for information when we could have easily communicated through-”

“I found out that the communication satellites between Earth and Akai have been hacked since the beginning, your highness,” Stephanie explained as she interrupted Teresa. “Saruk’s subordinates did send information your way since day one, but instead of your response, they got fake ones, similar to yours, while Akai didn’t get any message. I figured this out as I personally tried to contact you when I arrived on Earth for the first time, one week ago. I instantly recognized the fake reply.”

Teresa clenched one of her fists, crushing a paper with it. I noticed tears in her eyes as she looked away for a bit.

Kassius sighed. “Do you want to be left alone?” he asked her.

“No, I’m fine,” she muttered. “Mourning is for weak people. I just want to know who’s responsible for all this…”

“I’m afraid it’s Lord Orris,” Stephanie said. “He’s alive.”

“Tch… that bastard. Of course he is... “ Teresa hissed, throwing the crushed paper from her fist in the trash. 

“I think it’s one of his subordinates who hacked our entire communication system,” Stephanie continued. 

“I always suspected he’s not dead,” Joshua said. “I’m so thankful I saved this kid,” he finished, pointing at me.

“Samuel,” Teresa enunciated, getting everyone’s attention. “Everything you can do is in your genes. Those things you have implanted in your wrists… they were made by scientists that work in your company, indeed. But they were made for humans to use in the future if it comes to another war. The point is, without your DNA they would have been impossible to make. Therefore you, Samuel, don’t need them. This is a special telekinetic force manipulation ability that only people from the Uhyra family possess. It’s a very useful power and that is why we developed such devices which, by the way, possess only fifty percent of the ability’s real power. Stephanie has the devices too, and so do I. They come quite handy for medical purposes and manipulating energy.”

“I see,” Samuel answered unsympathetically. “Kassius… did you know about all this?”

“Uh… yes,” he sighed. “I just promised your real parents to keep you away from anything that has to do with-”

Samuel clenched his fists, sending him a cold look. “I don’t care about that,” he muttered, interrupting Kassius. “As Michael said, lies make victims. They’re no good for anybody.”

I caught myself staring at Samuel with a pitiful look. 

“So, you possess medical abilities just like Stephanie, right?” Samuel asked Teresa.

“Of course, I taught her everything I know,” the blonde lady answered.

“Good,” Samuel muttered, as he suddenly stretched out both of his arms in front of his face, with his wrists upwards as he looked at them with a focused stare.

“Samuel, what are you d-”

Clenching his teeth, he groaned as two small sized devices burst out of his wrists through his skin, staining some of Teresa’s papers with blood.

Everybody gasped as Samuel sighed in relief, sending Kassius another cold glare as he kept the devices still floating in the air.

What a dark scenario, Samuel always loved drama.

“Hn, at least this wasn’t a lie. I really didn’t need these, after all,” Samuel snickered.

My body felt frozen as I kept staring at him.

Stephanie had a disgusted look on her face, while Joshua and Kassius just frowned.

Seeing blood coming out of Samuel’s wrists like a river, I instantly remembered about the moment I found him in the bathroom, holding a piece of mirror glass above his wrist, willing to cut himself. Maybe his subconsciousness was trying to tell him to do _this_ all along, influenced by Lord Orris, so he could find out the truth about his powers all by himself.

Every piece of the puzzle that I had in my mind started falling into place, slowly.

Samuel’s wounds started healing as he kept looking at them, to Teresa’s surprise. He also let the devices fall on the floor, mockingly.

When his wounds healed completely, he let down his hands.

“Apparently you can heal yourself too, despite not receiving any medical training,” Teresa scoffed. “Kassius, this one’s a reckless kid, as expected from an Uhyra.”

Samuel frowned when he heard that. “Yeah, I can. I asked if you have medical abilities just in case something worse would have happened. So, there is a lot more left for you to tell us, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah, there is,” Teresa agreed.

The doors opened and a woman with medium black hair stepped in with a tray with cups in her hands. She smiled politely as she placed the tray on a side table. 

“Thank you, Kirai. Please bring some chairs for these guys, they will need to sit down for this,” Teresa demanded.

“Of course,” the woman replied.

She came back after two minutes with chairs and placed them behind each one of us, then bowed in front of Teresa and left.

We took our seats silently.

“Good, now that you made yourselves more comfortable, please have some tea. There’s a lot of catching up to do here, as far as I’m concerned.”

I inhaled deeply, preparing my mind to be overloaded with new information, while the others (except Samuel) sighed in relief for the worst had passed.

The moment finally came for me to put every piece of that damn puzzle to where they belonged. 


	13. Solving puzzles

As if it wasn’t overwhelming enough already, Teresa had to keep stalling us instead of finally getting to the point. I sighed heavily after I took another sip from my cup of tea, which, to be honest, tasted like weed.

When you know, you know.

“Okay, who wants to go first?” Kassius broke the awkward silence.

“Shouldn’t we just ask questions?” I barged in. “I mean, basically, Lady Teresa just said that my parents were mutilated in front of Joshua. So, I just found out that I’m an orphan, you know!? Don’t you think I might have a lot of questions?”

“Well then, I think I should begin,” Joshua said after clearing his throat. “What about your earthling parents, though?”

I instantly wondered how did he know about them.

“They… they’re scumbags," I muttered. "Apparently, I don’t need to feel bad about hating them anymore. At least, if they had the guts to tell me I was adopted. Tch… selfish bastards.”

“I’m sorry to hear that didn’t go well,” Joshua replied. “You see, after I saved you, I honestly didn’t know what to do. I was not prepared to raise a child, you know? But then, Teresa told me to go to Earth along with Kassius, Sanneth’s adoptive parents and baby Sanneth. Kassius agreed that taking you to Earth would be the best for you and-”

“Why did you keep Nakaeron a secret from us, though? And you, Kassius, you knew about this all along...?” Teresa scoffed. 

“I had many reasons, Teresa. Nakaeron is the child of the Sun Prophecy. It would have been dangerous for him to remain here, away from... Sanneth.”

Teresa widened her eyes at Joshua as I barely managed to swallow the lump in my throat after I heard that.

Samuel was listening very carefully, rising his eyebrows and sipping from his tea every time he heard something interesting.

“Let me explain,” Joshua went on. “You see, after the Kone spacecraft took off to Earth with all six of us, Nakaeron wouldn’t stop crying. After I’ve put him besides Sanneth, he… simply calmed down. He even smiled as we could see a faint, yellow glow surrounding him. That’s when I knew. Sanneth was like a wind to his fire, and he was like a Sun to Sanneth, who was also surrounded by a faint blue glow. You know the legend, Teresa.”

“Yeah. The Sun and the Moon. Unfortunately, Orris knows it too,” she sighed. "What you did was extremely reckless, Jirath."

My hands started shaking as I was holding the cup, and I almost spilled tea all over myself. I still didn’t understand anything.

So, suddenly, I was a child of a prophecy, Samuel and I were kind of destined in some way…

Poof. Just like that, my life was no longer… _mine._

“Just… what the hell is going on?!” I stormed impatiently. “You took me to Earth only to leave me in an orphanage, without being aware of who I really am?! Why?! Since when could you decide on _my_ behalf?!”

"I'm sorry... I wish I was a better... _uncle_ to you," Joshua muttered.

That's when I finally realized who he actually was. 

"Impossible, you're-"

"How's Marble doing?" the old man asked.

As tears began to gather in my eyes, I clenched my fists angrily. "He's dead. Those bastards from Krul shot him. He was just a innocent kitty, he didn't deserve that, you know!? I didn't deserve all of this!" I sneered.

“Michael, calm down,” Samuel muttered. “Let’s hear all this until the end and we’ll judge them after that. By the way, what legend are you all talking about? Are you saying that Michael and I… we’re destined for each other and there was no other way? That’s some bullshit. Feelings are either real or not. And in this case, I feel nothing like that for Michael.”

“The legend is about the founders of this galaxy as we know it. Nobody knows too much about them, we only know that if a child of the Sun and a child of the Moon get married, their union will awaken a tremendous power within the two, making them capable to rule over all the other galaxies,” Teresa explained.

Samuel scoffed. “What a joke. We're both guys.”

“I think it’s true,” I sniffed with a low tone as my hands were still shaking. “ Weren’t Seryth and Nikaellan children of the same prophecy? They were guys too and they talked about a wedding. They didn't seem to be in love or anything, they looked more like brothers to me...”

Teresa gasped. “How do you know about them?”

“I keep seeing them. Their memories, I mean. I can easily describe how they looked like and they were very similar to me and Samuel.”

Samuel widened his eyes at me, surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-”

“Are you keeping things from me as well?!” he scolded me.

“No,” I sighed apologetically. “I just didn’t want to worry you even more after what happened with Oliver. Lord Orris, I mean, whatever.“ 

I looked at Kassius, searching for approval on whether to tell Samuel about what Oliver did to him or not. He nodded calmly.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Samuel went on. 

“Samuel…”, I began with a serious tone, “do you remember what happened the night after we went to the beach?”

“Not really,” he answered. “I just woke up the next morning surrounded by all four of you.”

“Right. Remember when Oliver placed his hand on your forehead in the restroom, though?” I went on.

“Yeah,” Samuel nodded.

“I think Orris did something to him,” I said, looking at Teresa. “Is there any way you can check? You said you possess medical abilities, maybe you can scan his brain or something.”

“I guess I can try,” Teresa muttered as she stood up from her seat, heading towards Samuel.

“What’s going on?” Samuel asked anxiously.

“Stay silent, kid. Let me do my job,” Teresa demanded as she placed her hand above Samuel’s head, keeping it still. A faint green glow surrounded her palm as she closed her eyes.

And I thought she would take him in a lab or somewhere else where they had special brain-scanning machines, but no... apparently she could do it with her bare hands.

After two seconds, a frown crossed Teresa's face, followed by an instant gasp as she moved her hand away. “That bastard,” she hissed.

“He damaged his brain, didn’t he?” I asked, confident about my theory.

“It looks like a parasite or a bacteria, but I think it’s more than that. It can’t spread to others, but it’s located in the hippocampus and it seems to be eager to multiply and spread to the prefrontal cortex of his brain, though. This is clearly _Orris’_ doing. We need to get rid of it as quickly as we can,” Teresa said as she took back her seat behind the desk.

Samuel blinked a few times, placing his right palm on his forehead as he seemed to have spaced out. I pulled my chair closer to him and patted his shoulder, running my thumb gently over it. He didn't move away.

“Samuel… after Oliver did that to you and Mr. Aiden died… you felt sad, right?” I asked him, still running my thumb over his shoulder, encouraging him to give me an honest answer.

“I guess,” he muttered, trying to move away from my grip this time.

“I think this bacteria, or whatever the heck it is, was triggered by sadness, Lady Teresa,” I said.

“What do you mean by that?” Teresa asked.

“I don’t know how to explain, but after seeing Mr. Aiden dead, Samuel suddenly acted… different. He threatened to kill Stephanie if she would not explain what was going on about Lord Orris, who called Samuel Sanneth before attacking him, by the way. Even if he was confused, Samuel would never say something like that out of the blue. I noticed he was still sad after the meeting was over and we went on a little walk on the beach in the evening, on my suggestion, as I wanted to cheer him up. You kept telling me sunsets make you sad, Samuel. I didn’t understand the meaning of that until… until you…” I stopped as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat.

“Go on, Michael,” Teresa said.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second as I rubbed my forehead with my hand, sighing. “Sorry. Let me start with the moment we arrived back at the hotel after we took that walk. Samuel said he wanted to take a shower and I went to eat something, but after only two minutes, I heard something break in the bathroom. Afraid Samuel fainted or something, I rushed to the bathroom to check on him. I had to slam the door open because it was locked and I found him sitting on the floor, holding a piece of mirror glass above his wrist, wanting to cut himself. When I looked at him, he was spaced out, almost unconscious. I took the mirror glass out of his hands and-”

“Hmm, interesting,” Teresa interrupted me, “he basically wanted to do what he did a few moments ago, am I right? I bet he wanted to take out his devices so he would discover that his powers were in his genes all along, right, Samuel?”

Samuel shrugged at Teresa, as his hand fell on forearm, squeezing it threateningly.

I swallowed dry as I knew he wasn’t feeling good at all, given the circumstances. He hated feeling weak and exposed.

“I guess it makes sense,” he replied bluntly.

“Maybe the bacteria was influencing him to do it,” I went on, trying to get my hand out of Samuel’s squeeze and put it over his, to calm him down. I felt him judging me like no other time.

“Thankfully, he came back to reality after I shook him a little," I went on. "He didn’t remember anything, saying he just fell asleep in the bathroom which I found weird and that’s when I decided not to tell you about it, Samuel,” I said as I gave him an apologetic glare. “I knew it had to do with Orris and I was so scared and confused that I knew you wouldn’t be able to understand what was happening to you either, you would have just worried more until you would have finally consumed yourself completely. I decided not to tell you yet and pay attention to you instead, from that moment on, but it was the wrong choice. I failed, because…”

I hesitated again to remember the night of his rampage. I inhaled deeply, gaining the energy I needed to explain what happened. “I woke up at 5 A.M. without you there as you seemed to have left the hotel. I searched for you desperately everywhere, that’s how I bumped into Joshua in the hotel’s basement, where, surprisingly, I also found Oliver in a secret library, stealing a book that had-”

“What?!” Teresa stormed. “Jirath, you were supposed to guard that damn place!”

Joshua sighed. “I apologize. You know how sneaky that filthy snake is. Also, I heard Michael entering and-”

“Whatever, get to the point,” Samuel hissed at me.

Joshua and Teresa both sighed at Samuel’s impatience, but I guess they didn't blame him.

“I felt an earthquake,” I went on, “then I found Kassius outside, panicked like hell, telling me that you were the one causing the earthquake and he couldn’t stop you. You went out at sea and I desperately chased after you, only to find you standing on water when I expected to find you swimming instead. You looked possessed, Samuel. You wanted to create a massive tsunami and kept talking about wanting to wash away all humans and stuff. When I tried to stop you, you… tried to _kill_ me.”

Samuel gasped as his dark eyes widened at me, unable to believe what he heard. He was finally not squeezing my forearm anymore anymore.

“Yeah, I’m not lying,” I said as I sighed and looked into his eyes for a second. “I had to fight you… and it wasn’t pleasant, I even discovered I could absorb energy from you. You tried to choke me and that’s what saved me, my body basically started absorbing oxygen from you out of panic. After a short while, I was able to step on water too using the energy I stole from you, as we fought each other. I even tried to test out if you would actually kill me, so I acted like I wanted to give up. You yelled _“Nakaeron”_ out loud as you attempted to stab me through the heart with an energy blade."

Samuel's eyes narrowed apologetically.

"I dodged it, of course," I went on, "but I was devastated by it, emotionally. I became confused, not knowing what to do anymore. That’s when I remembered the fact that sunsets made you sad, as you told me, so it meant that as long as the sun was up, you were able to feel warm, happy. It sounds silly, but it made sense to me. The sun was hidden behind clouds though, but I could use my new abilities to scatter the clouds and uncover it, hoping it would bring you back to reality, but… you knew about it, you considered it a weakness and you chose to keep your eyes closed, refusing to see the sun. You used your powers to gather all those clouds I scattered above me, creating a thunderstorm. As I was instantly struck by lightning, I passed out and drowned, convinced I lost for good. While unconscious, I had another dream. I saw Seryth and Nikaellan. Seryth was talking about going to fight Orris and Nikaellan made him promise to come back alive as they were already engaged, the wedding about to take place in the following days. I think that dream made me wake up all of a sudden and that’s when I saw you sinking near me and I saved your ass.” I sighed looking at Samuel, relieved that I finally finished. “ I don’t know who stopped you, though.”

Damn, I talked a lot.

“I did,” Joshua muttered. “I struck him with an energy blast.”

I frowned at him. “That could have killed him… were you about to let him drown?!” I snapped at the old man.

Joshua snorted. “It wasn’t even close to a power level that could have killed this kid. Also, I knew you were alive, I sensed your energy and I knew you would save him.”

I scoffed in response, convinced that he only excused himself. “Whatever,” I muttered as I looked back at Samuel, worried.

He was staring at the floor still with an apologetic look in his eyes.

He felt guilty, I knew that, and there was nothing I could say to cheer him up this time.

“So,” Teresa began as she placed her hands on the desk in front of her face, “you seem to be connected to Nikaellan’s memories, Michael. That’s very interesting. Also, you became aware of your own powers. I wish I could help you with that, but someone over here kept you hidden from us, which means nobody knows what you are actually capable of and it’s up to you to discover that and understand more about your abilities. Of course, both of you will need special training in order to control them. Even you, Samuel, because you were also kept away from the true nature of your powers. I might as well consider you as clueless as your partner.”

“I think Orris killed both Nikaellan and Seryth,” I muttered, out of nowhere. 

“Yeah, it might be true, despite everyone believing Orris died along with Nikaellan, who was praised as a hero," Kassius said.

“When did that happen?” I asked.

“Eighty years ago,” Teresa answered.

“And how do you know?”

The blonde lady snorted. “I’m two hundred and fifteen years old, kid.”

“Whaaaaat?!” I snapped as I instantly got up from my seat, probably turning pale as a ghost too. “How is that even possible?! You look thirty!”

“Medicine,” she said calmly. “Also, akayans have a lifespan of more than one hundred and twenty years.”

 _“Great,”_ I thought, _“I have a long life ahead of me.”_

Samuel sighed and grabbed my arm, pulling me back on my seat.

“Is everyone from my family dead?” he asked Teresa out of the blue.

“Yes, except your older brother, Ison.”

“I have a brother? Where is he now?”

“He ran away, “ Teresa answered with a sigh. “He killed your entire family.”

“What? Why?!” Samuel gasped with eyes wide open as a frown crossed his forehead.

“To protect you, Samuel. Your real parents wanted to go to Earth and take away your powers, maybe even kill you… it’s a long, complicated story, but I guess Ison will hear the news about you coming back on Akai and he’ll try to reach out to you. I guess you’ll have a lot to talk about. Your brother swore on his life to protect you since the day you were born.”

That sounded really dark. I didn't feel so bad about my fate after I heard Samuel's.

“Are you okay?” I asked Samuel as I felt him shiver a little, as his hand that was still on my arm became colder.

He shrugged as he took it away, looking around him, probably waiting for Teresa or someone else to say something.

“Look, you both probably need some good rest,” Teresa said. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. But first, I need to do something temporary about that bug in your head,” she enunciated as she looked at Samuel. “It will be enough to stop it from spreading until we find a way to extract it.”

“Do you need my help?” Stephanie asked.

“Yes. Everyone else, please wait outside. You can stay, though,” she told me. “I believe your warm energy helps him.”

“It does,” Stephanie hummed with a smile. “I was convinced.”

Samuel looked at me, confused about when did that happen, but probably realizing it was after we fought.

“Good,” Teresa nodded.

Kassius and Joshua left the room while Teresa got up from her seat along with Stephanie as they both surrounded Samuel.

“Both of you stay on your seats while we do this,” the old lady demanded.

I nodded at her as I closed my eyes, remembering how Stephanie told me to focus in order to give Samuel some of my energy. It felt like meditating.

After I felt all the energy inside of me flowing smoothly, I focused on passing it to Samuel as I opened my eyes and looked at him.

He was staring at the floor and when he started receiving my energy, his eyes widened as he looked at me, probably amazed by the whole thing. I could even see a faint smile on his pale face as his gaze softened instantly. I sighed in relief, nodded an "it will be okay" and smiled back at him.

I didn't know about his real brother, but it felt like I was actually his brother. Probably the wedding thing was just a formality in the legend, when the only secret was for the two of us to be as close as a family. And it began to feel like we were. 

From my point of view, at least. Samuel was colder, I didn't understand why.

“Ready?” Teresa asked Stephanie.

“Ready when you are,” the short haired brunette hummed with confidence as they both placed their right hands over Samuel’s head.

“Close your eyes kid,” Teresa told Samuel. “It will hurt a little.”

Samuel did as he was told.

A faint green light surrounded Teresa and Stephanie’s palms as they both closed their eyes as well, while I kept looking at all three of them without losing my focus. After a few seconds, Samuel’s face frowned as he squeezed my shoulder tight, clenching his teeth because of how much pain he must have felt. I could only imagine a headache so strong it makes you clench your teeth like that.

I swore at that moment, that I would never complain about headaches again like I used to do at work. Probably Steve was the main trigger for all of them though, so… I didn’t have to worry about it anymore, anyway, because I was not going back to Agra Corporation ever. Actually, I wasn’t even sure if I’d see Earth again, but that’s another story...

I realized I got stuck in my own thoughts and lost my focus when I suddenly gasped at Samuel squeezing my shoulder so tightly that I thought he crushed my collarbones. He grunted loudly as drops of sweat were falling from his frowned forehead down to his nose. I wanted to ask if he was okay, but I didn’t want to disturb Teresa and Stephanie, so I kept my mouth shut and just placed my other hand over Samuel’s instead and calm him down, as he wouldn’t have let go of my shoulder too soon, considering how hard he was squeezing it.

He started panting as if he already ran ten kilometers on a mountain.

“Okay Stephanie, prepare to place the seal, I caught the fucker!”

“Yes,” Stephanie nodded.

The faint glow surrounding their hands suddenly became brighter as Samuel grunted even louder, almost yelling this time.

I could almost feel his pain, I swear. The whole thing was very intense. 

“Done,” Stephanie said after a minute as she moved her hand away.

“Good job,” Teresa told her as she moved away her hand as well.

Samuel finally opened his eyes, so wide as if he’d seen death, with face flushed and hair sweaty, panting and gasping.

Teresa quickly poured water into a glass and placed it on the desk, in front of him. When he attempted to reach it, I noticed how badly his hand was shaking so I took the glass instead.

“What… are you doing?” he murmured, looking at me as if I treated him like a joke.

“Shut up and don’t be stubborn, not this time,” I told him with a low tone and placed my free hand under his chin as I pressed the glass against his lips like people do to kids, helping him drink the water.

He drank all of it, to my surprise, but sent me a cold death stare. 

“How do you feel?” Teresa asked him.

“My head hurts like hell,” Samuel replied.

“It will go away in approximately twenty minutes,” she said. 

“What did you do?” I asked her.

“I located the exact place of where the bacteria was hidden. This is an energy bacteria, it’s not like any type you have seen before. Antibiotics and stuff like that don’t work against a bug like this. They multiply by feeding on the host’s energy and because it is placed in the brain, it causes severe mood swings and depression, but this one’s purpose is more than that. We’ll take a better look at it tomorrow as I will try to extract a sample and analyze it. I hope I will be able to do that without surgery. If that will succeed, extracting it completely without surgery might be possible as well, but that would leave Samuel unconscious for several days, because I will put an energy lock on his brain in order to protect it from the damage an extraction would cause. So, that would put him to sleep, obviously. Right now, Stephanie placed a strong barrier around the bacteria, blocking it from multiplying and attacking Samuel’s brain again.”

“So that means he’s safe?” I asked.

“Yes, but it won’t hold too long. If the barrier lasts a few days it’s more than enough,” Stephanie said.

“Oh, I see,” I sighed. “Can I ask you something, Lady Teresa?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Were my parents good people?”

She smiled at me as if she was surprised by the simple question. “Yes, your father was proclaimed the Fourth King of The Sun Country a month before he died… and your mother, she was such a lovely young lady… and a brave warrior.”

I smiled back, looking down. “Why did they die, though? Who killed them?” a frown crossed my face as I asked.

“It was a powerful creature… they fought against it with all the power they had.”

“I see. So, they were heroes…” I muttered.

Teresa nodded in approval, looking at me pitifully.

Stephanie’s phone beeped suddenly as she turned to the blonde lady.

“Your highness! I have good news! We recovered our communication satellites and all the messages that were stored in their history are being delivered right now!” she hummed cheerfully.

Teresa’s computer beeped a few times as she took her seat and opened it. “Hmm, I expected more of them.”

“Oh, probably some of them got lost…” Stephanie sighed.

“There’s one from Saruk, sent in September 2076,” Teresa said.

When I heard that year, I remembered when I was standing at the edge of that damn cliff one year after, wanting to end my life forever…

“What does it say?” Stephanie asked.

“It says… ' _Teresa, I don’t know if you got the rest of my messages but I’m saying this again: Nakaeron is alive and he’s on this planet! I discovered him when I saw Sanneth sneaking out with him, apparently he’s a student at the new school Kassius enrolled Sanneth in, at the beginning of this year. His name is Nathan now. They can’t hang together, Teresa, it’s dangerous for the power mentioned in the prophecy to be awakened now, they’re too young and definitely not prepared to fight against any enemy that will come after them, not after what happened to Sanneth’s adoptive parents. Kassius and I decided it’s best if we erase both of their memories and insert some new details to avoid triggers. Sanneth will be given a new name, as well as Nakaeron, their names will be Samuel and Michael. Don't worry about the prophecy, they will find each other again, I’m sure about that. Brothers always find each other. And they’ll be ready when that happens.' ”_

“Oh, Lady Teresa…” Stephanie murmured as she looked at the old lady who was staring with her eyes widened at the screen, then at Samuel.

"Brothers...," he murmured.

I, on the other hand, felt like the whole room started spinning as my whole body was shivering. “So… that’s why… that’s why I saw all those flashbacks… with us, Samuel! And the dreams you said you had… and maybe that’s why I wanted to throw myself off that cliff! Haha! I felt so lost, but I couldn’t explain to myself why, oh my god, it was because we lost our connection!!” I rambled as tears came running down my cheeks.

“And those guys from Krul who kidnapped you. I think they undid what Saruk did, when they tried to erase your memory. Basically they made you remember everything again. I wanted to say that to you before the meeting at the hotel but I got interrupted by the arrival of everyone.” Samuel muttered. “So, we really did meet before. Scott Aiden… Kassius… they both lied to me… all this time...”

Oh boy, I didn't like the look on his face.


	14. Pressure

“Samuel, what are you doing?” I asked him when he got up and headed to the door.

“Demanding explanations,” he replied bluntly, still having that dark expression on his face.

“You need to rest, kid. Leave the angst for later,” Teresa enunciated. “You’re in no shape to-”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence because Samuel already slammed the door after he got out, ignoring her demands. I also got up quickly and followed him as Teresa released a long sigh.

“These two are going to be the death of me, Stephanie,” I heard her say before I closed the door behind me.

“I’m still waiting, professor,” Samuel’s voice echoed from around the corner in the hallway. “I trusted you all. How is this shit healthy, can you explain? Do you  _ have  _ a good explanation or do you need to make one up?! Answer me!”

“Samuel, I-”

“You should call me Sanneth, right? Because that’s how you called me until Scott erased my memories, right?! _ That’s _ my real name!”

Kassius sighed. “I know this is difficult for you, it’s a lot of pressure and-”

“Difficult?!” Samuel scoffed. “You’re all a bunch of hypocrites. You don’t actually care about Earth at all and you definitely don’t give a damn about my feelings. If I had been told the truth maybe I could have stopped that goddamn war!”

“Don’t overestimate yourself, you were just a kid!” Kassius objected. 

Samuel scoffed again in response as he gave his professor a mocking glare. “Maybe I don’t overestimate myself, maybe I could have really stopped it, if I had received proper training. But will you ever know? Of course not, because you probably couldn't have handled me. And Michael? You and Scott literally screwed up his whole life. I have no respect for that man now, he can burn in hell!”

“Samuel, wait!” I yelled after him when I saw he wanted to leave. “Where are you going, you don’t even know this place!”

Ignoring me, he just turned around and sent Kassius another sharp glare. Right in that moment, Lady Teresa got out of her office.

“What the hell is all this noise?! Y'all came out here so you can fight next to my damn door?”

Samuel fixated his eyes on her. “You…  _ you _ gave Kassius that stupid mission. You owe me,  _ your highness", _ he addressed her mockingly. "I demand that you give me back all the memories that Saruk took away from me. Michael’s memories are already on their way back, thanks to our enemies, so that means mine should come back as well, right?”

Teresa turned to me. “Is that true?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “Those bastards from Krul tried to erase my memories of them kidnapping me, but I think they got it all wrong. I’m sure they’re coming back, I’ve seen a few flashbacks. They’re scattered, though.”

“Memories come back in an odd way,” the old lady explained. “The first ones you see are usually the ones that had an impact on different choices you have made. I’m afraid I can’t bring yours back,” she said as she turned back to Samuel.

“Why is that? Don’t tell me you don’t have the required technology because I won’t believe that bullshit.”

“Samuel, please be respectful!” Kassius stormed.

“You can’t order me around anymore,” Samuel shot back.

“That is his mission, believe me he can,” Teressa told Samuel.

“That  _ was  _ his mission,” he scoffed. “If Michael and I are part of a prophecy or whatever, we can’t let our fate at the mercy of your poor choices, especially after seeing the disaster they’ve caused so far, can we? So, I dismiss Kassius. I need my fucking memories back.”

“I already said that’s out of discussion!” Teressa yelled angrily as she clenched her fist at him.

Samuel sketched a subtle, confident smirk. “I see. You don’t want me to get my memories back because of a reason, am I right? I bet you’ve just read more messages that you have received right now and there is something I shouldn’t remember, isn’t it?”

Teresa gasped as her face frowned even more. Apparently, Samuel’s sharp mind was giving her a hard time.

“You really don’t understand, young man. There are a lot of things you do not understand! I am not your enemy and neither is Kassius, everyone here was trying to protect you. Maybe what I do not want you to remember is something that affected you very badly, have you considered that?! I would refuse to bring Michael’s memories back as well but apparently what’s already done can’t be undone, otherwise we'd mess up with his head for good” Teresa explained. “Please, listen to me. I do not want to keep you away from your full potential and I have also heard about what you’ve been planning to do on Earth. I won’t stop you. But before that, Sanneth, you need to learn to control your abilities and understand who you are and what is your purpose. Some things happened on Earth in the past that affected your mind and those things are not important anymore!”

When she said she won't stop him from doing what he wanted to do on Earth... was the biggest lie I've ever seen someone make up in an instant. 

“Why did Lord Orris tell me that I despise human beings? Why did I want to flood an entire country?” Samuel asked. “Maybe I really do hate humans, deep in my subconsciousness. Maybe they did something to me in the past. Now that I think of it, I never had any human friends, because apparently Michael isn’t human and neither were the people I have worked with.”

“Samuel… please, stop this,” I muttered with a low tone as I looked into his eyes.

Honestly, I didn't like where that was going.

He looked away after two seconds, avoiding my gaze.

Joshua made himself noticeable when he sighed heavily. “Both of you, just go and rest. We have a lot of time to sort things out tomorrow,” he said as he got closer to Samuel and patted him on the shoulder. “Believe me kid, I care about you and Nakaeron a lot and… yes, we might have made some mistakes. Despite that, things on Earth would not have been any different, believe me when I say this. I have been on Earth for as long as you’ve been and trust me, all the things we fought against would have found another way to happen. I don’t believe in chances. You and Nakaeron must focus on becoming stronger now and change our lives. Change the Universe.”

Samuel frowned. “You don’t get it. How can I change something I don’t understand or know anything about? That is why I want my memories back.”

“Look, do what Teresa says for now and you have my word, when you’re strong enough, I’ll personally give you all those memories back,” the old man smiled at him. “You will think differently when that happens.”

He had a warmth in his voice that could soothe anyone’s angst, even Samuel’s, whose expression softened a bit as he looked at me again with an apologetic glare. Jirath wasn't lying.

“Jirath!” Teresa objected. “You are in no position to defy my orders!”

“The risks I take are calculated, dear,” Joshua replied calmly. “You’ll see for yourself what those two are capable of bearing. Their shoulders can bear the weight of a thousand planets.”

Teresa sighed as she placed her palm against her forehead. “You and your theories. This will never end. Fine, I’ll wanna see how things evolve before doing anything stupid. Tomorrow, both of you will begin special training. If all goes well, you’ll be capable of mastering your abilities in less than a week. 

I gasped. “Wow, that’s such a short time! How is that possible?”

“Technology,” Teresa replied.

“Right, why didn’t I think of that,” I pouted.

“Okay, Stephanie will show you the way to the dorms,” Teresa said. “I’m going back to work. See you both tomorrow.”

“Follow me,” Stephanie told me and Samuel.

We did as she said. As I was passing by Joshua, he placed his hand on my shoulder and stopped me. 

“Take care of Sanneth. He’s a little bit anxious and he needs to be calmed down. You know what I mean, kid,” he whispered to me as a snickering smile formed on his face.

Kassius, who was next to us, cleared his throat in response to what he definitely heard pretty clearly.

I turned red instantly. “Huh!? Damn you, dirty old geezer!” I cringed as I backed away from him.

Samuel and Stephanie both turned around at us, confused. 

“It’s nothing, you guys, this old man apparently has some stupid jokes to tell people,” I said as I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly, sketching a fake grin.

Kassius sighed, then Samuel scoffed and turned back around as Stephanie sent Joshua a death glare. She must have been used to the fact that he was a pervert.

I also gave him another nasty gaze before I followed her and Samuel.

How could someone be wise and stupid at the same time was the question that kept bothering me since then.

Actually, I take that back. 

_I am smart and stupid_.

As we were walking through the hallway, Samuel was pretty absent. I wanted to say something to him, but I didn’t want to put pressure on him either, especially because we weren’t alone yet. Samuel never liked to talk about personal matters with someone else being around.

We finally stopped in front of a door after we walked more than ten minutes. The hallways of the building were terribly long and apparently, they were a circle. It was weird, because the building didn’t look round at all, from the outside. 

Stephanie took out a key, opened the door, then handed the key to Samuel. “Good night and see you both tomorrow morning.”

Samuel nodded a silent “thank you” as he took the key from her.

When we entered the room, the minimalism didn’t surprise me, I totally expected it. I sighed after I closed the door behind us.

There was one thing that surprised me, though…

“Samuel, are you oka-”

I was interrupted when he suddenly stretched out his arm and used his abilities to slam me against the nearest wall.

"That was for lying to me, moron. And this..."

He somehow managed to enter my mind. I was suddenly somewhere else, in a world he imagined. Probably Earth.

All I know, is that it looked wonderful. We took a seat on a bench from where we could see a big blue ocean, obviously.

"This is for how grateful I am I found you, after all."

I instantly felt like a flame in that virtual wind that blew through my hair, the most intense package of feelings that had ever hit me.

“You can remember, right? They say we knew each other six years ago as well, right?” 

“Yes, we got that confirmed,” I muttered.

“That’s why I had all those dreams… if I call you Nathan, maybe I’ll remember…”

“Samuel, don’t push yourself too much...”

“Call me Sanneth, because that’s my real name and that’s how you called me in the past. Didn’t you get any flashbacks where you were saying my name?”

“No, I don’t remember that, unfortunately,” I said, obviously lying again, without any idea why. "But  I’ll call you Sanneth from now on, if that’s what you want."

Now that I write this, I still feel the urge to refer to him as Samuel, but that was a fake name after all, as well as Michael was a fake name for me, given by Scott Aiden. Or Saruk, whatever his name was.

“Thank you…  _ Nathan,"  _ he muttered as he got out of my mind and reality could be seen again.

Without saying anything else, Sanneth tucked himself into bed.

Because I couldn’t fall asleep right away, my mind was still full of questions, confusion and worries. I finally had the time to process things more evenly , so I went on the balcony to contemplate.

I was not human.

I had never been.

What did that mean? 

Suddenly, I was everything I never imagined I could be. As Joshua said, I was meant to carry the weight of a thousand planets.

Will I be able to do that, though? What will it take to get there?

I didn’t know.

I only knew one thing. Without Sanneth by my side, I would definitely fail.

I know that now. I know a lot of things now.

I am Nakaeron Uzkaeri, but my earthling name is Michael Nathan Unsworth. I thought I knew who I was, until I remembered everything that's been taken away from me when I lost my memory. I don't want that to happen again, that's why I decided to write this, after all, as messy as it is. For myself, for my friends... for you. I hope you're gonna open your eyes, Sanneth... it's been a month already. After all we've been through and after finally meeting you again. I can't lose you now...

I just can't.

>   
>    
>    
>    
>    
> 


	15. Acknowledgement

“Oi, wake up, you two, sleeping break’s over!” Teresa’s voice woke me up from behind our bedroom’s door, followed by a persistent knocking.

“What the hell!” I snapped, almost tossing Sanneth on the floor, because he had been sleeping on my chest all that time.

“Tch,” he pouted, slowly getting up, pressing his hand against the bridge of his nose as he glared at the door. “That woman…”

I got up as well, headed to the door and opened it only to see that old woman’s frowned face, with narrowed hazel eyes that were staring right into my soul.

“You sure give me the creeps, granny…” I murmured awkwardly.

“I don’t look like a granny so don’t you ever call me that again,” she hissed. “Come on, we’ll get some breakfast, then you’ll come to the research base with me. You’ll both start training today. Also, Sanneth, I have a gift for you.”

Sanneth’s eyes suddenly focused on her. “What is that?”

“Something that only members from your bloodline are able to possess,” Lady Teresa said as she smirked in response.

“Hn, interesting. Let’s go, Nathan.”

“Oh, you’re calling him Nathan now?” the old lady asked, confused.

Sanneth didn’t say anything back, he just walked past her, out of the room, after he took his clothes on.

“Wait up, I need to dress up too, y’know!” I mumbled.

I stood there by the door covered in a blanket, staring at him, until he stopped and turned his face at me.

“You could have been already dressed since I stepped out,” he told me bluntly as he raised an eyebrow.

I scoffed in response and just went to take my clothes on. He didn’t even wait for me to lock the door as he was already way ahead of me.

Not even Teresa waited.

“Tch, what a morning… I said wait for me!!” I shouted behind them.

After walking again for like fifteen minutes, we finally arrived in a place that looked like a cafeteria. 

“What would you like to eat?” Teresa turned to me and Sanneth.

“Do y’all have noodles?” I asked, full of excitement.

Teresa raised an eyebrow. “What the hell are those?”

“Uhh… they’re a sort of pasta that are actually made of-”

“I’ll have cherry tomatoes and some rice with mixed vegetables,” Sanneth told her, interrupting me.

“Sure,” Teresa nodded at him.

“Really?! You have all those and you don’t know what noodles are!?” I snapped like a child, pouting. “Tch, fine, I’ll have the same as him.”

“Oi, idiot. They literally have a menu full of pictures right above your head,” Sanneth mocked me, pointing his finger at the menu board. “Noodles are over there, they’re called shen’kai here.”

I turned around and saw the menu board. “Oh… what a weird name.”

“Tch,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes at me. “Look who’s talking, your name is Nakaeron.”

“Don’t throw that attitude at me again, what the hell is wrong with my name?!” I objected. “Okay, so I’ll have shen’kai with… umm… do you see pork or beef anywhere?”

Teresa looked at me, confused, as if she didn’t know what pork was.

“Meat, “ Sanneth explained to her.

Teresa’s face cringed as if someone insulted her. “Don’t tell me y’all eat other beings, there on that damned planet!”

Both me and Sanneth remained awkwardly silent, his face even looked guilty, it was kind of funny.

So yeah, everyone on Akai was apparently vegan.

“Well, basically plants are living beings as w-”

“Everything here is made in a laboratory! We don’t eat anything that’s alive!” Teresa objected, interrupting me.

So, not 100% vegan, but still...

I was about to ask how the hell were they able to function at all then, but Sanneth sent me a buzz in my left ear, reminding me that was his way of telling me I should better keep my mouth shut. I mean, they must know how to create food to sustain themselves...

After our dishes were prepared and we ate- I just got the noodles instead of rice- we also finished drinking our coffee ( thank God they had that, at least, Sanneth was as happy as me concerning that).

“Okay, we can go now,” Teresa muttered.

“You don’t have to pay?” I asked.

“Have you forgotten who I am?” she shot back.

“Uh… right.”

After another long walk, we got out of the building. I was finally able to admire the city view once again.

When Teresa took out a tiny gadget from her pocket, she threw it on the ground. Before I got to ask her why she did that, the device suddenly transformed into a vehicle similar to Asun’s.

All I know is that Akira Toriyama would've been happy to be alive and see that things similar to Bulma's capsules were a real thing.

“Oh crap, not that flying thing again,” I pouted.

“Come on, hop in!” Teresa demanded of me after she and Sanneth were already on board. 

I did as she said. When the engine started I could already feel my stomach wanting to get rid of everything I just fed it with. That would have been a pitiful waste of surprisingly good artificial chicken, noodles and tomatoes.

Sanneth grabbed my arm and held it, probably thinking I'd lose my shit again. I smiled at him in a thankful way and really tried not to panic.

“Here we go!” Teresa announced as the vehicle instantly sped up.

I turned my head and really looked down and around us this time and the view was fascinating. The air also felt so fresh and clean, despite how polluted I expected that place to be.

To my surprise, it felt cleaner than the air on Earth.

“Hn, you’re so calm now, scaredy cat. If I let go of your arm, would you chicken out again?” Sanneth asked me mockingly.

“Yeah, I probably would,” I answered.

Sanneth widened his eyes for a second, hearing my honest answer.

He probably expected me to get mad or something in response to him teasing me, but I was really calm. Everything felt right, for once, despite the sudden change of surroundings.

“Fine, then. I’ll take care of you, even though it’s troublesome, you know. Being the big brother,” he sighed.

Just him being in control again and attacking my pride, why would that bother me, right? But I never had a brother. I don't know why I felt like I wanted to cry like a little kid.

Before I realized, the flying vehicle stopped.

“Here we are!” Teresa said as she hopped out of it.

“Wow!” I exclaimed, looking at the building next to us. It had a very interesting shape, like a huge claw, and it was somehow floating.

“Get off kid, before I shrink this thing back with you in it,” Teresa mocked me.

I realized I was the only one left on the vehicle, again. After I tripped over last time, I really didn’t want to get off and make a fool of myself once more.

“Tch, moron,” Sanneth scoffed as he stretched out his arm, pointing it at me.

Before I managed to move, my body was already in the air, floating. “What the hell! Sanneth, are you doing this?!”

“Stop whining,” he told me as he smoothly let his arm down, making me land safely on the ground, on my feet. “You’re welcome.”

“Mhm, whatever, yeah, thanks,” I mumbled embarrassed as I narrowed my eyes, looking away.

We were in an elevator again, but that building had only twenty floors, apparently. There were a lot of differences in sizes and heights when it came to buildings in that city.

I also expected the place to be very bright, usually that’s how research places are on Earth, full of white everywhere, but this one was dark as hell. It even gave me the creeps. We suddenly stopped in front of a metal double door and Teresa pressed a button next to it, making it slide open very slowly.

“Oh, Lady Teresa, good morning!” a bald man standing in front of a huge screen greeted her. “You brought guests?”

“Good morning to you as well, Zeyn. These are Sanneth Uhyra and… Nakaeron Uzkaeri.”

Zeyn widened his eyes at me. “Impossible… you’re _the_ Nakaeron Uzkaeri?!”

“Heh, you can call me Nathan if you want,” I hummed as I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck.

I wasn’t used to being so important and known of, really.

“Wow, what a time to be alive!” the man exclaimed. “Literally! Lady Teresa, help me catch up! How did he survive?”

“Someone saved him,” Teresa responded. “I would love to help you catch up and give you more details, but I don’t know too much about him either and there is no time for that as well. They came here to train and acknowledge their true powers and strength. They were both raised on Earth, so… they weren’t aware of what they are capable of.”

“Oh, I see. No worries, with the training program that I developed, they will rock their powers in a very short time,” Zayn told her cheerfully.

“Good, I was also hoping for that. I also have another request for you, though. Sanneth, like every Uhyra, would like to receive the khairo’me.”

“Oh? That’s amazing, but beware, kid, it will hurt a little.”

Sanneth had a confused glare. “Care to explain?” he asked Teresa as he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Of course. Khairo’me is a device that is compatible only with Uhyra DNA. After being implanted, it is activated only at will when a huge amount of energy is being released. It’s similar to the telekinetic devices you had implanted on your wrists.”

“So, it’s basically a brain-machine interface?” Sanneth asked.

“Yes and no,” Teresa went on. “When activated, it appears as if you have glowing circuits on the right side of your head and right arm. They can be seen, but they can’t be touched. Also, your right eye will look like a red bionic eye. It can scan things, detect virtual realities or simulations and teleport you wherever you want. At the cost of your energy, of course. Also, the circuits will be able to convert your energy into extremely high voltage electricity that can be released through your right hand, giving you the capacity to electrocute your enemy.”

“Wow, I want that too!” I barged in like a kid.

“Sorry, but it’s only compatible with Sanneth,” Zeyn told me.

“What do I have then?” I pouted, crossing my arms.

“Hn, I’m in,” Sanneth muttered.

“Okay, sit here,” Zeyn told him. “As I said, it will hurt, you will feel like being stung by a thousand bees. Are you ready?”

“I always am,” Sanneth replied.

I was watching him worried and excited at the same time.

Being too cocky never helped him at all.

“Okay, take your shirt off then,” Zeyn told him. 

After Sanneth did what he said, Zeyn took something similar to a gun in his hand and pointed it somewhere on his back, on the right side.

“Okay, I’m going to inject the energetic microchip now. Stay still, no matter how much it hurts. Understood?”

Sanneth nodded in approval then fixated his eyes on me. I smiled at him in response, trying to encourage him, though I knew he wasn’t actually afraid. Zeyn pressed a button on the back of that gun, making it release a sharp loading sound followed by a click sound. 

“Was that all?” Sanneth asked bluntly. “It tickled.”

“Don’t get too cocky, young one, the pain starts just now. I will give you a pill that will force your body to go full power in order to activate the microchip. Here it is, take it,” Zeyn told him as he handed him a red pill and a glass of water.

What is it with biotechnology and red pills, man? I'll never know.

Sanneth followed the guy’s order and swallowed the pill.

Before he could hand back the glass of water, he clenched his teeth as he groaned out loud, dropping the glass on the floor. Luckily, it was made of plastic.

Sanneth suddenly curled up on the chair he was sitting on, turning his back at us. I could see that on his back, where Zeyn touched him with that gun, a glowing blue dot appeared, pulsating, as Sanneth’s blue aura started to be seen as well.

”The process started. It will take several minutes from now,” Zeyn told us.

That blue, glowing dot on Sanneth’s back suddenly turned into a line, then into the shape of a triangle, then from the triangle, several straight lines that looked exactly like circuits continued to go up, extending themselves in more lines all the way on his right arm to his fingers and neck. Sanneth grabbed the edges of the chair, pressing his fingers against them as he kept groaning in pain. 

As the circuits extended on the right side of his face, he suddenly put his hand against his right eye, pressing it. After yelling as if someone stabbed him, he calmed down, indicating that the pain must have stopped.

When he turned around to look at us, his right eye had a small, glowing red light in the middle and the circuits on his arm were glowing brighter than his aura.

“This is-... I feel amazing,” he muttered as he stretched out his right arm full of circuits, looking at it.

“Wow,” I said. “This feels so unreal. Why can’t I get one, it’s so unfair.”

“Hn, well, too bad for you,” Sanneth mocked me.

“Okay, now try and deactivate them. Inhale and exhale slowly, try to relax your body,” Teresa told him.

Sanneth did as he was told. His aura started fading away slowly and the circuits disappeared instantly, as if someone turned off their light. 

His focus was so damn good.

“Wow, it’s like he never had them!” I exclaimed, amazed by the fact that they couldn’t be seen anymore at all and his right eye went back to normal.

“Okay, now I have to start the training program and adjust it to your power levels. It will take ten minutes or so,” Zeyn said.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Sanneth said.

“Of course, the second hallway, on the left,” Teresa told him.

“Thanks,” he replied as he got out.

I remained there with Teresa and Zeyn. A few moments after Sanneth left, Kassius entered the room.

“So, you started working already, huh?” he asked.

“Of course, Kassius. I’m glad you came by yourself,” Teresa told him.

“I felt in my guts I was needed,” the grey haired masked guy scoffed.

“Kassius, do you have the khairo’me?” I asked him all of a sudden.

He widened his eyes at me.

“You know, that guy Ceroy said something back when we were attacked on Anmi, something about-”

“I know what he said,” he interrupted me in an extremely avoidant way. “As I said, I haven’t killed anyone, it was a gift. You cannot call it khairo’me, because I only have the eye. Also, it suffered malformations, so I can only scan things with it, nothing more. A friend that died gave it to me.”

“I see.”

“The program is ready,” Zeyn said.

“Where is Samuel?” Kassius asked me. “I mean, Sanneth.”

“He said he went to the bathroom. Better go check on him, last two times he went to the bathroom alone, a lot of bad shit happened,” I sighed.

I got out, ready to go after Sanneth. When I entered the bathroom though, no one was there. I started looking around the hallway but there was still no sign of him, until I heard his voice coming from outside somehow. As I got closer, he was on a balcony and a guy that looked very similar to him but had long hair was standing in front of him. Apparently he also had those circuits and Sanneth’s were also activated. I was curious to see what was going on so I remained there, behind a corner.

“Wait, you’re my-...”

“Yes, my name is Ison. I am your brother,” the guy in front of Sanneth said. “My khairo’me activated on its own when it felt your presence. I’m so glad to finally see you again, little brother.”

“Again? Have we met before?” Sanneth asked him as he narrowed his eyes.

Ison suddenly seemed to hesitate answering that.

“Yes, when you were born, until you were departed to Earth.”

“Is it true you killed the whole family just to keep them away from me?”

“Yes. I guess you hate me now, don’t you?”

“No, I actually don't. ” Sanneth answered shortly with a sigh. “This feels odd. So, we share the same blood… but at the same time, a bad vibe overwhelms me now, but it’s not caused by you, somehow, it’s…”

“Hey, it’s okay. Everything’s fine now, Sanneth,” Ison said as he stepped forward and hugged his brother.

I smiled in response because it was indeed something heartwarming. He was a bit taller than Sanneth, who raised his head and looked at Ison, somehow with a confused glare, but looking straight into his eyes.

Suddenly, in the next second, Sanneth cupped his brother’s cheek with one hand as the other went through his hair and… _kissed him._

"What the fuck!?" I whispered.

Right then, I gasped and Ison saw me. I wanted to go right over there, but suddenly I could not move, it felt like I grew roots into that spot.

As I looked at them with my eyes widened, Ison gently stopped Sanneth, who looked as if someone saw him naked.

“Shit,” Sanneth gasped as he wiped his mouth. “Why… did I do that?!” 

“Don’t worry, maybe you were just-”

“No,” Sanneth murmured as if he was about to cry. “I feel weird, something is wrong! Why the fuck would I kiss my brother?!”

“Sanneth, wait,” Ison stretched his arm to grab his brother’s, but Sanneth already got back in, running like hell through the hallway without even seeing me.

I wanted to go after him but I still felt like I was stuck to the floor.

Suddenly, Ison appeared in front of me, with his khairo’me activated. I chickened out, thinking that he’d kill me for what I saw.

“Who are you?” he asked me with a surprisingly calm tone.

“M-my name is… uh… Nathan… I mean… Nakaeron.”

Ison gasped. “So you’re alive. Look, you didn’t see anything, okay? Don’t be mad at him, he is traumatized. What Sanneth did… was because of the reason why Lady Teresa doesn’t want to bring his memories back. He wanted to blow up your entire planet when I was almost killed then captured by humans on earth during the war, as they were ready to make me their subject of experiments. I was disguised as a girl back then, and mentioned nothing about being his brother. I went to Earth to protect him but I needed him to trust me so I acted like I was in love with him. If he remembers that...”

“What!?” I gasped. "That sounds so... fucked up, man."

I barely managed to swallow the lump in my throat as I prepared myself to hear another shocking new information.


	16. Connection

I was looking at Ison with widened eyes as I began to process what he said. So basically, Sanneth met him in the past, but all his memories of him were erased along with the memories he had of me.

“Why did Scott… I mean Saruk… erase Sanneth’s memories of you as well?” I asked Ison. “Also, what were you doing on Earth?”

“He erased every memory that would have an impact on Sanneth's... decision making. It’s complicated,” he answered as he ran his palm over his forehead, then through his long brown hair. “You know, this is not the right place and time for me to tell you these things, but we _will_ talk later. You want to understand my brother better, I am aware of that. So, you can choose what is best for him as well, right? He's like a brother to you, too.”

I looked away as feelings of guilt overwhelmed me. I hated lies and I knew how much Sanneth hated them as well. “Yes, I can, but… I don’t want to lie to him anymore. He never lied to me.”

Ison scoffed. “Really? I bet he won’t tell you about what happened between me and him earlier. He'll be very ashamed and you'll see he doesn't trust you enough yet in order to tell you.”

I just frowned as I looked at Sanneth’s brother who seemed very confident with his words.

“Fine,” I sighed. “If he doesn’t say anything, I won’t either.”

“Good. Now go, I’ll contact you later.”

“Okay. Wait, how will you do that?”

Ison didn’t respond.

Instead, he touched my arm and I felt a mild electric shock.

“Oi! What was that?” I gasped as I backed away a bit.

“Calm down,” Ison chuckled. “I just paired my energy with yours, so we can communicate telepathically. You don’t need the khairo’me for that.”

He lost me at “telepathically.”

It was going way too fast for me to handle.

Too many things I thought never existed, I felt like a kid seeing Hogwarts for the first time.

But somehow... it made sense.

“Wait, you mean… we are now paired like Bluetooth devices?” 

Ison raised an eyebrow. “What’s a _Bluetooth_ device? Is it something you put on your teeth?”

I snorted.

Of course he didn’t know, he wasn’t from Earth. Not even new generations on Earth know about Bluetooth anymore, because obviously new technology replaced it.

“Haha! No, you don’t put it on your teeth,” I chuckled. “ I’ll tell you some other time. I’m going after Sanneth now.”

“No, you go back,” Ison stopped me as he grabbed my arm. “I’ll go after him, because I already know where he went. Also, you weren't supposed to be here, remember?”

“Right,” I pouted. “Wait, how do you know where he is?”

“We've been paired since he was a kid but he does not remember.”

“I see… uhm, can you undo, or... stop the pairing?”

“Of course, but you need to learn how to use your energy for that. This pairing only works in proper conditions though, and if you exceed a certain distance, the connection is interrupted,” Ison explained. “That is why, as soon as Sanneth stepped on Akai, I felt his presence again, because he was close to me.”

I started laughing as Sanneth’s brother looked at me confused. “It works exactly like Bluetooth, oh my God!”

Ison smiled. “You’re such a kid. That Bluetooth sounds useful, though. Go, now,” he said as he vanished before my eyes.

“Wow… he can also... teleport? So freaking cool!” I exclaimed.

“Nakaeron? Who are you talking to?” I heard Kassius' voice as he approached me.

“Uh… no one,” I lied. 

“Did you find Sanneth?”

“Ummm, no, I think he went outside to get some air, probably, I don’t know…”

“I went to buy myself a coffee,” I heard Sanneth’s voice as he appeared from around the corner in less than a minute.

I widened my eyes at him but knew I needed to act normal, so I struggled hard to do so. “You surely drink a lot of coffee, did you know that?”

“Hn.”

Sanneth didn’t even look at me and Kassius, he walked past us, heading to the room where Lady Teresa and Zeyn were.

Kassius looked at me suspiciously, as if he wondered if I knew something about the reason behind Sanneth’s attitude. I just looked away, making myself look guilty instead of pretending that everything was normal. The professor just sighed and followed Sanneth.

Before I did the same, I looked around the hallway, wondering if I’d see Ison again but there was no sight of him.

“Oi, what’s up with you?” Sanneth asked me, bringing me back to reality in an instant.

“Nothing, my stomach feels a bit weird,” I answered, trying to pretend I didn’t just see him kissing his own brother.

“You and your anxiety… make sure it won’t get in the way of our training,” he said bluntly.

I felt like I was filling up with rage more and more each second. He did something stupid and he knew it, yet he still acted self righteous.

“Make sure your _attitude_ won’t interfere with our training either!” I snapped.

“Boys,” Lady Teresa scoffed again. “You are in a training room. Please act accordingly.”

That was it, the rage within me couldn’t wait any longer to get out, I ignored Teresa and everything Ison told me about pretending not to have seen anything.

That is why people call me an idiot, usually. 

“I can't act accordingly when Sanneth does stupid shit!” 

Everyone, except Sanneth, who narrowed his eyes at me, turned red. “What are you talking about?”

“You _know_ what I’m talking about, Sanneth!”

He widened his eyes at me, probably realizing I saw him and Ison kissing, because he was not stupid.

Of course everyone got it wrong, though, as they had no idea what I was talking about, so they just guessed that I caught Sanneth alone, in the bathroom, in the middle of something.

“Don’t be mad at Sanneth for taking care of himself,” Kassius tried to lecture me. “You’re also a guy, you should underst-”

"Wait, what... no, that wasn-"

“What the fuck!” Teresa yelled, interrupting me. “Y’all can’t focus one minute here without acting like teenagers?! The discussion is over, talk your private shit _in private_ , please. Thanks! Now, shall we get to work?!”

"Geesh."

“Y-yes ma’am, “ I nodded as my voice trembled a bit. That woman was really scary when she was angry.

Sanneth didn’t take his narrowed eyes off me though, and you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. I instantly realized what I did, that I should have kept my mouth shut, but I always knew I sucked at handling my own emotions.

It always ended badly for me when it came to that, I don’t know why, maybe I got it from one of my parents?

“Okay now, you will both enter the simulation. Are you ready?” Zeyn asked us.

Of course I realized I haven’t been paying attention to anything that had been explained up until then.

“Simulation?”

“Yes, Nakaeron, a simulation. A virtual reality controlled by a computer,” Teresa explained.

“Like in _The Matrix_? Wow, so cool!” I exclaimed full of joy, leaving everyone mesmerized by how fast I dropped the other attitude.

“Don’t mind him, he has ADHD,” Sanneth told Zeyn.

“So what, Mr. Perfect?” I shot back.

“Boys, please…” Kassius sighed.

I pouted, looking away. 

“Look, you know you will have to work together in this simulation, right?” Teresa asked me.

“Uh-uh,” I nodded, still avoiding Sanneth’s glare.

“We’ll do our best,” Sanneth responded calmly, which bothered me even more.

“Good, now go inside.”

We did as we were told, though I started feeling really odd about the whole situation. I knew me and Sanneth were meant to be like a family and also had already met each other in the past, but I couldn't help myself and wondered if the fact that Sanneth learned about the prophecy would make him want to give me up, just because he would think the prophecy was bullshit. Or maybe he hated being controlled by fate or something...

I was probably thinking too much again but hey, that’s just being myself…

“Careful of the head!” I heard Zeyn’s voice fade as I hit my head against some weird door entrance.

“Ouch! Who made this?!” I yelled.

Sanneth rolled his eyes as I managed to finally get inside the room, where everything was white. Completely white.

I had a weird feeling that I was floating and I panicked. As I turned around to go back, the door was not there anymore.

“Shit, what the heck is this place?! Are we in the right place, Sanneth?” I asked, hyperventilating.

“Of course we are, loser. Calm down. It’s a simulation.”

I forgot about my anxiety and remembered about how much of an asshole Sanneth had been and still was. Knowing I have already messed up with telling him I saw him and his brother, I became careless.

I could have made something else up though, but I didn’t care anymore, I became more and more impulsive.

Again.

“If you don’t drop that attitude you will regret it,” I told him.

“What? Are _you_ threatening me?” he scoffed. “What the heck is wrong with you?”

“Just shut up, liar!” 

“Liar?! Why the hell are you calling me a liar? I am anything but that!”

“Oh, really!?” I shot back.

The room started trembling as colors began to appear everywhere, until we could see stars more clearly. A floor made of digital tiles appeared underneath us, giving me the illusion of safely standing on something, though it looked like we were somewhere in space.

Yeah, virtual reality, of course. It felt too real for me though, and I was anything but calm.

“Leave the bullcrap aside. Get ready… I feel something coming,” Sanneth told me.

Great, all I needed to become more agitated. Suddenly, an ugly looking creature appeared in front of us, and I guessed we had to use our abilities to stop it.

Knowing Sanneth was stronger and already knew how to use his powers, I did nothing.

Sanneth stretched out his arm and pointed it in the creature’s direction as I was standing there like a useless piece of trash. That made me feel angry in the end, I couldn’t let Sanneth be in charge in there as well, so I ran in the creature’s direction.

“Oi, idiot, what are you doing?!” he yelled.

“What does it look like?!”

When I tried punching the creature like a loser, it disappeared and suddenly appeared behind Sanneth and he didn’t get to notice it, the creature teleported too damn fast.

“Watch out!” 

When Sanneth turned around, the creature blasted him instantly.

“Sanneth!!” I screamed as I closed my eyes automatically as the blinding light from the blast filled the whole place.

The room was white again when I opened my eyes and Sanneth was getting up from the ground, sending me death glares.

“Idiot, what the fuck was that?! You should have let me handle this!”

“Oh yeah? And what should I do, sit and watch?!”

“Yes, obviously, because you don’t know how to use your powers!”

The main door suddenly opened.

“Get out! Now!” I heard Teresa’s order.

Sanneth scoffed and got out first without saying anything else.

When I got out as well, Teresa’s arms were crossed in front of her chest as her face was frowned like hell.

“What was that?! Which part of _teamwork_ don’t you BOTH get? I can’t believe the prophecy chose you! You have ten minutes to go outside, solve your issues and come back as a team! Go!”

Sanneth sighed and went out. I followed him without saying anything back to Teresa.

As I got out, the huge metal double door closed itself after me.

Sanneth was standing against a wall with arms crossed, looking at me.

“Now, will you tell me what’s your damn problem?” he asked me bluntly.

“Sanneth... I saw what you did. With Ison.”

“Yeah, so? Go on, judge me.”

I couldn’t believe he didn’t even apologize for his shitty behavior.

“Tch, fuck off with that attitude! You’re a liar, yet you told me you hate liars and you never lie, how am I going to trust you from now on?!” 

“Which part gave you the impression that I am a liar?” Sanneth asked me as he raised an eyebrow, confused.

“You’re messing with me, aren’t you? Are you being sarcastic? What do you mean by _which part_? The part where you didn’t tell me, bastard!”

Sanneth slapped his face with his palm, mildly, as he looked at me again, probably thinking I was retarded.

“Nathan…” he sighed. “When? _When_ would I have been able to tell you? On the hallway, when I came back? Yeah, great, it would have been great if Kassius heard it as well, not embarrassing at all, what can I say! Oh, or maybe… I could have told you inside, _where everyone could hear everything, even in the simulation chamber!_ Right?! I didn’t even _get the chance_ to tell you anything, yet you’re calling me a liar!”

There it was, the feeling of guilt cutting through me like the sharpest blade. I knew I messed up, I even ruined the chance of discovering if Sanneth was indeed a liar, because I could have waited until we were alone to see if he said anything then, but I didn’t.

Also, because of how much I messed up, if he was indeed a liar, I gave him a chance to be cautious from that moment on. I dug my trust’s grave myself.

“You… would have told me?” I asked with a low tone, looking away.

“Of course I would. You’re the only one I can talk anything with,” he said as he rolled his eyes. “Idiot. How can you be so damn impulsive?”

“That’s how I am and you have to deal with it. Why did you kiss your damn brother?” I asked him as I looked at him with a serious glare.

Sanneth turned red as he avoided looking into my eyes. “I have no idea. I just did. It was like… a voice in my head was telling me to do it. Like he reminded me of someone...“

I knew it was because of his memories that probably were still somewhere in his brain, because one does not completely lose their memories, I always knew that. The kiss still didn’t make sense in my head. I couldn’t judge him too much, but still… somehow, if it was me, knowing it was my brother standing in front of me, I wouldn’t have kissed him no matter what, I mean, uhh...

“I’m sorry, okay?” he muttered as he avoided my glare.

Let’s pause, did I just hear Sanneth _apologizing_ to me?

“For kissing your own brother?” I asked.

“No, for being an asshole to you."

Shocking, thinking that it actually bothered him.

Maybe everyone in his family was weird.

I didn’t say anything about that though, I just told him it was okay and hugged him and patted him on his back.

“I'm sorry I yelled at you like a moron. Now, should we go there and be a team?”

“Yeah,” he answered as he sketched a tiny smile on the corner of his lips.

As we both got back in, Lady Teresa smiled at me.

“I hope you’re both ready for the second round,” she said.

“Yes!”

“Hn.”

“These are for you by the way, maybe they will give you more confidence,” Lady Teresa said as she handed us a sword and a gun. Guess which one I chose.

I looked at Sanneth while we were heading back to the simulation chamber and he looked content again.

Maybe he wasn’t a liar.

If he was, he would have been anxious, worried about the fact that he has been caught and thinking about how he should act next time in order to not get caught, but there he was, smiling… calm as he usually was.

I started feeling bad that I ever doubted him.

“Get ready, Nathan. Give me some of that warm power of yours,” Sanneth said as soon as we were in.

“Got it,” I replied full of confidence.

The digital tiles that looked like a transparent floor returned underneath our feet and the space environment was back.

And so was the ugly creature.

“We’ll pass this in no time,” Sanneth said full of his usual cockiness.


End file.
